Once the House Republicans' Plan.... F or K or whatever.... sank in the normal sea of Teabagger 'not nihilist enough' bickering, the Senate was left in a real fix:
Any bill originating in the Senate potentially require 2 cloture votes - one to open debate and the other to end it - and any single Senator (read Ted Cruz) can not only force both cloture votes, but also force the full 30 hours of 'debate' for each.
Harry Reid was waiting for the House to produce ANYTHING, because then he could take the House bill, skip the first cloture vote, substitute the Senate compromise, eat Ted Cruz's demand for a cloture vote (and its 30 hours of 'debate'), get it passed and back to the House in time for Boehner to fall on his sword and allow an 'open' vote to get the bill passed in time to avoid default.
Got it?
Well, when the House was unable to pass - or even get to a vote on - any bill, it looked like the jig was up.... there was no time for the Senate to get anything passed with Ted Cruz threatening to gum up the works.
But, amazingly enough, according to several sources, Boehner has agreed to step up and do the adult thing:
The office of Speaker Boehner told the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid's on Tuesday night that they would be willing to send them a "message" so that the procedural process of getting a debt limit and government funding bill could move faster.
The communication between the two was first reported by Salon's Brian Beutler and was confirmed by an aide to the Huffington Post. The aide said that the news was delivered after House Republican leadership failed to move their own bill to resolve the dual matters.
A message is a legislative vehicle that if sent from Boehner to the Senate would allow Reid to skip one cloture vote. This would ensure that if one Senator wanted to gum up the works, he or she could only force 30 hours of consideration.
This is probably the most stunning event - if it happens - of this entire sickening sequence. Totally unexpected, and to me it seems likely it is a 'screw you' directed from Boehner to 'Speaker-wanna-be' Cruz.
The last straw for Boehner may have been catching some of his Teabagger members meeting with Cruz in the basement of a Washington Mexican restaurant.
I sure hope this is true - it may be the only chance to get a bill passed.
Cheers.
Wed Oct 16, 2013 at 4:18 AM PT: Got a little bit pissed.... and a LOT pissed off last night, dashed off this diary, went right to bed and woke up on the rec list! Thanks, night owls.
I was really pleased at the variety and intelligence in the comments. I'm glad so many folks are following the shenanigans of Calgary Cruz and his seditionists - we'll need as many people as possible to remember just what happened during this debacle when the next election rolls around.
Here's the link to the HuffPost article I quoted. Apologies for forgetting to include it, and thanks to the commenter who added it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...