It’s Never Too Early for Lame Duck Speculation! I can’t help but wonder if Harry Reid didn’t spring his surprise procedural maneuver last week–setting a new precedent that limits the ability to offer amendments after the Senate votes for cloture–with one eye on the possibility that, if the GOPs sweep the 2012 election, a lame duck session next year might be his last chance to enact Dem-supported legislation. After all, when does the (now curtailed) ability to offer endless amendments have the most chance of actually killing a bill that has supermajority support? Answer: When the clock is running out. And when is the clock most definitively running out? A: At the end of a lame duck session. …
P.S.: It’s true that any 2012 lame duck legislation would also have to pass the GOP-run House. That would seem to rule out a reprise of last year’s the Dream Act drama. But there may be other, business-friendly, bills that can pass the House but that Reid might have trouble getting through the Senate at the last minute over minority objections. Here’s one of them. …
P.P.S.: Reid seems to be a bit disingenuous when he claims that “[n]one of the amendments Republicans demanded were about policy” but were rather all stunts to score political points. At least one–the Johanns bill on the EPA’s possible regulation of farm dust--actually seems to have had a chance of passage. …