 Following lock in step with their fellow lawmakers in the House, lead by Minority Leader John McKinney, the GOP continued their shameless temper tantrum with an endless 11 hour ramble (complete with a WHOPPING 26 amendments) during last night/this morning's debate on the abolishment of the death penalty.
For his credits, Senator Don Williams called out McKinney on his nonsense.
"We had, I thought, a very respectful debate on this issue, after six or seven hours... . Unfortunately, this prolonged filibustering, and it's obvious that this is a filibuster at this point, demeans our entire process ... and I have to wonder if this is the strategy from now to the end of the session -- to prevent business from moving forward, to block the majority party from passing important legislation."
and McKinney's excuse...
"Look, we have the right, as does every member of this legislature, to stand up and speak on issues of importance. And it's offensive to the First Amendment and our system, and Senate, to suggest that members can't speak freely on issues that they care deeply about."
Yeah, he cared about his amendment SO MUCH that he pulled them back only after Williams paid attention to McKinney's temper tantrum.
Democrats had defeated the first five of the 26 amendments as the debate came within sight of the 11-hour mark after 4 a.m., and then McKinney announced that he was pulling back the rest of the amendments. The 19-17 vote on the bill followed quickly.
[...]
Williams acknowledged after the vote that before McKinney withdrew his amendments, the two sides had a discussion about which bills would be considered after the death penalty repeal measure. One of them was a measure that Republicans had wanted to take up right away - a bill to cut into a deficit estimated at nearly $1 billion for the current state fiscal year ending June 30.
So much for McKinney's "stand up and speak on issues of importance" excuse...
Whether it's Senator Toni Boucher's decision to run out the clock on the debate on decriminalizing certain amounts of marijuana (because she wasn't getting HER way), or House and Senate Republicans bringing democracy to a hault with their moronic and redundant rants, it's become apparently clear that the only thing Chris Healy's Party of NO cares about are their own self-interest...as opposed to working for the common good of everyone in Connecticut.
Something to think about when these people (who only think of themselves) are up for re-election next year. |
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