Why does Al Franken shut up Joe Lieberman?
Today Senator Al Franken (D-MN) effectively shut up Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) while Lieberman was giving a speech on the Senate floor. Lieberman was allotted ten minutes for the speech but ran out of time. At this time Lieberman asked for “unanimous consent” to finish his remarks but Franken objected taking away the “unanimous” from the consent. Under Senate rules therefore Lieberman was kept from finishing his speech. The moment represented a small piece of justice for Democrats on two fronts. First Franken’s move represented a payback of sorts on the parliamentary game going on right now in the Senate. Republicans have used various parliamentary tactics in an attempt to stall health care reform over the last few days. The most notable came yesterday when Senator Tom Coburn demanded a 767 page amendment be read before it was voted on by the Senate. The amendment had no chance of passage as it proposed implementing a single-payer system but the vote itself was seen as a symbolic ges
Franken objects to Lieberman taking a ‘moment’ for extra Senate remarks Updated 5:52 p.m. By Joel Achenbach Tensions flared in the Senate during an otherwise slow afternoon Thursday when Sen. Joe Lieberman asked for unanimous consent to extend some remarks on health care for “an additional moment.” He didn’t get it. Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut, has in recent days infuriated his fellow members of the Democratic caucus by nixing any form of public health insurance in the Senate health-care reform bill under consideration. His actions have particularly enraged liberals, one of whom, Sen. Al Franken, the freshman Democrat from Minnesota, happened to taking his turn presiding over the Senate when Lieberman made his request to extend his allotted 10 minutes. “In my capacity as the senator from Minnesota, I object,” Franken said. “Really?” Lieberman said, clearly shocked. He chuckled. “Okay,” Lieberman said, as if talking to himself. “Don’t take it personally.” Moments later,
Al Franken cut off Joe Lieberman today in what appeared to be a powerplay in the Senate. John McCain pitched in saying that he had never seen anything like that as far as protocol in the Senate, at which point Al Franken defended himself. It seems the “good old boys” are having a good old time being hateful. Sources: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?
