Damn you and your sibilant ways, lizard people.

Do not the Repubs & Lizard People know that this is the year of...Al Franken?

Minx

I thought Republicans WERE Lizard People.......Michele Bachmann anyone....?

Does anyone think that our Senate has Stockholm Syndrome? I mean, honestly, these half-wits were held hostage (politically) and brutalized (politically) by the Republicans for years and years and now, finally free, want to be best buds with their former captors.

Enough with the mamby-pamby let's all hug and give each bipartisan hj's.

Let's get someone in there that will smash their fucking faces into the marble floors.

Well, how will Franken react when pelosi, reid et al tell him, "sorry old boy. You won the recount but you can't come in because the republicans will get mad at us"?

jm- I wouldn't piss him off. He'd probably write a book about them and embarrass the crap out of them in the media. Although why wait for the book.

The Senate democrats are not asking to seat him before the election is certified. They want to seat him immediately after the election is certified.

The republicans want to wait until all legal challenges are completed to seat him. Since this could be anything from months to over a year the repubs are being their usual disagreeable selves.

I'm with Nanotyrannus on this one.

It's time that someone kicks some serious republican ass. Long overdue.

Or is the majority still not big enough?

Here's hoping that Obama lets Rahm off of his leash most of the time.

The Senate Democratic Caucus has become a Ladies Coffee Klatch.

Isn't referring to "Republicans" and "Lizard People" technically redundant?

But I thought this was the era of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle!

Something tells me that Franken will be a thorn in the ass of both Rupublicans and Democrats in the Senate, and that's a good thing.

Wherein I cut and paste my comment from below because it technically applies more here than there, and I'm actually serious.

I think this would be awesome. And what's more, it could be *effective.*

Remember how, as an act of creative activism and kind of guerrilla-political-theater, bloggers organized a mailing of rubber stamps to congress, during the bad Bush times, and it actually worked to both frame the argument and give the Dems a spine (and a through-line) to stand up?

I was thinking, your line about " make them strap on the diapers and read the phonebook" for the filibuster threats is far too good to exist in print only.

If a consortium of bloggers, Huffington-post and otherwise, got behind the idea of encouraging their readers to send their democratic representatives packages containing Depends and old phonebooks, with letters to the effect of "call their bluff and MAKE them actually filibuster. Here is a kit for you to hand them, if they want to try to stop the progress and change we voted for. Tell them if they want to threaten filibusters, they better be prepared to strap on the diapers and break out the phonebooks."

It could a)get media play and shape the narrative and b)put the idea into the news-cycle and the general "conventional wisdom" that Democrats had better stand strong.

The media would report the shit out of it (pun not intended, but there you go) and as such, it could become a talking point in Democratic circles; the forcing of filibusters to ACTUALLY be filibusters.

It is a lose-lose for republicans, because the argument against it is "They're making us actually DO the thing we're threatening to do."

Also, it would send the appropriate counter "kumbayah" message (which I understand Obama needs to project to a degree) to the actual, working members of the congress and senate who need to know when their actual constituents are aware of something and keeping tabs for the next election/donation cycle.

Make them filibuster whenever they threaten it. Just like a kid throwing a tantrum, it never lasts forever, and they will eventually have to cave in. I like the Stockholm syndrome comment. Probably more truth to it than we would like.

Here's something from firedoglake that is promising. I'm not holding my breath, though...

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/02/after-2-years-nancy-pelosi-realizes-democrats-have-a-majority-in-the-house/

Can't we just say to hell with it and seat Bill Maher instead?