Josh Marshall's take (fwiw): Okay, Schumer's speech was a head fake. This is the Senate D caucus trying to fool their...

[demmiblue]

Okay, Schumer's speech was a head fake. This is the Senate D caucus trying to fool their own supporters. Sorry to say that but that's what's happening.

2/ The plan seems to be to vote for cloture and then Thune agrees as his part of the bargain to allow a vote on basically an amendment to the bill. Probably something like Murray's bill. So you give up the 60 vote threshold. Have a vote on each version and the GOP one wins. End of story.

3/ The point of this to temporarily confuse the issue so that Senate Ds can say they vote for their version while allowing the GOP version to pass. The critical point is that it's handing the GOP the 60 vote threshold for nothing.

3/ The point of this to temporarily confuse the issue so that Senate Ds can say they vote for their version while allowing the GOP version to pass. The critical point is that it's handing the GOP the 60 vote threshold for nothing.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T22:11:06.323Z

EDITED to add:

...

The short-term CR Schumer is referring to is a Democrat-backed plan that would keep the government funded through April 11, giving the negotiators on the appropriations committees a chance to come up with a bipartisan plan.

The 30-day CR would almost certainly fail if the Republican-controlled Senate were to vote on it. And on the off chance it did succeed, it would not survive a vote on the House floor.

Locked out of power, the short-term CR and the push for a bipartisan spending bill is believed to be part of a messaging effort by Democrats who want to be able to say they did not roll over and accept the MAGA funding bill that House Republicans and President Donald Trump are shoving down their throats.

Schumer’s Wednesday remarks point to a possible off the floor negotiation. The public ask to vote on the 30-day stopgap would likely come in exchange for Democrats giving Senate Republicans the votes they need to invoke cloture on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) CR on the Senate floor. That would mean that Senate Republicans would ultimately be able to pass the House-passed bill with a simple majority, eliminating the need for Democratic votes.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/after-heated-dem-meeting-schumer-says-dems-will-push-for-vote-on-short-term-cr-first

[edhopper]

1. Sounds like

what we've been seeing from them.

[lame54]

2. Take a bag of Cheetos to a bazooka fight

[Nanjeanne]

3. If this happens they better be prepared for the tsunami of disgust coming their way.

[brush]

4. Who is Josh Marshal and how has he learned to inyrtpret Schumer's?

[Lovie777]

5. I think he's over political wire....

[dweller]

7. Talking Points Memo

TPM


✌🏻

[ms liberty]

6. If true, this is exactly the kind of s*** that's guaranteed to piss off our own side

I hope it's not accurate. Sigh.

[JoseBalow]

24. I can confirm that, if true, I will be pissed off

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Politicians suck, in general.

The few of you who are still fighting are the exception.

[demmiblue]

9. Chris Hayes: Problem with having a freakishly plugged in, high-info base is you cannot possibly get away with this kind

Problem with having a freakishly plugged in, high-info base is you cannot possibly get away with this kind of thing. Everyone will understand what you’re doing.

Problem with having a freakishly plugged in, high-info base is you cannot possibly get away with this kind of thing. Everyone will understand what you’re doing.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T22:27:16.975Z

[peggysue2]

10. Josh Marshall over at TPM is pretty savvy about what's up in DC

I hope this is inaccurate but if Schumer is indeed pulling a head fake, a defensive performance for the rubes, all hell will break loose.

[Quiet Em]

12. Perhaps there is something I'm not understanding,

but I don't believe we have many options, unfortunately. Leon and Trump will run wild if the House CR passes, and Leon and Trump will run wild if the Government shuts down. The only thing it seems the Democrats can do is what Schumer is attempting, but it will only work if enough Republicans are also troubled by the two options on the table.

[Think. Again.]

27. This schumer thing is only delaying the outcome of passing the republican bill by a month.

Senate Dems can STOP the awful republican bill entirely by all of them voting against it.

A shut-down would be entirely on the republicans backs for not negotiating their bill with the Dems.

[Quiet Em]

32. Neither option the Republicans have put on the table is good,

After thinking some more about it, if some Republicans can't find their backbone and work with the Democrats then the lesser of two evils is the shutdown. It's not a good option for the people, and Leon will find a way to commit more abuse with the shutdown, but the public won't put up with it for very long and it will force everyone back to the negotiating table. That shit CR from the House would last til September. A shutdown would probably be addressed within weeks. Still, there's not much Schumer can do except tell them to negotiate now and avoid the coming public pushback. People know this is all on the Republicans. They are the ones who control the House, Senate and White House.

[Think. Again.]

33. You write...

"Still, there's not much Schumer can do except tell them to negotiate now and avoid the coming public pushback."

Apparently schumer has devised another plan, and it is a betrayal of his constituents if he carries it out.

[William769]

14. If this story is true, he's done in politics. That's why I don't believe this story.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. I believe it.

Unlike the current Republican Party, many Democratic office holders do not fear their base. They assume we will always fall in line because we don't have anywhere else to turn. That can lead to very dangerous miscalculations.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

18. This is what the Republicans do all the time to great success.

But Democrats are too smart to fall for it and don’t usually like that type of chicanery. I’ll be honest, I don’t mind seeing the Dems fighting a little dirty. They just need to do it smarter.

[newdeal2]

11. This is what I was expecting

It’s not too late to change course, I hope.

[William769]

13. Sorry, I'm not buying this story.

[Bettie]

16. Well, we'll know

before too long.

[demmiblue]

15. Ed Kilgore: Let me be clear: I'm not accusing Chuck Schumer of lying. He's telling us the plan is to support cloture...

Ed Kilgore
‪@edkilgore.bsky.social‬

Well, folks, looks like the fix is in: Senate Dems will vote for cloture (i.e., to give up the right to filibuster) on the CR in exchange for a doomed vote on a short-term "clean" CR. Then Republicans will get their dirty CR on a party-line vote. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/after-h...

I hope Chuck Schumer realizes nobody's going to be fooled by this "we oppose the CR but not enough to filibuster it" position. It's just a complicated way of caving. Maybe it's the right thing to do in the end, but if so he shouldn't be so devious about it.

Let me be clear: I'm not accusing Chuck Schumer of lying. He's telling us the plan is to support cloture to get a vote on a 30-day "clean" CR. But doing that means giving up the right to filibuster the GOP's "dirty" CR. That's just a fact. And once that happens, it will pass on a majority vote.

My bottom line, since I have a church event to attend, is that the two parties played chicken in the Senate and enough Dems flinched, for whatever good or bad reasons, to lose the ultimate vote on a "dirty" CR that leaves DOGE and OMB empowered to keep slashing. Hope I'm wrong, but don't think so.

Let me be clear: I'm not accusing Chuck Schumer of lying. He's telling us the plan is to support cloture to get a vote on a 30-day "clean" CR. But doing that means giving up the right to filibuster the GOP's "dirty" CR. That's just a fact. And once that happens, it will pass on a majority vote.

— Ed Kilgore (@edkilgore.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T22:49:37.460Z

[Wiz Imp]

19. I call BS Ed Kilgore.

Every article I've seen has quoted Schumer as thus:

Schumer made clear on Wednesday that right now, Democrats won't provide those votes.

"Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR," Schumer said.

He did not say that Democrats will vote for cloture.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/schumer-democrats-block-house-funding-bill-heightening-shutdown/story?id=119716576

[demmiblue]

17. More from Marshall:

As you could see from my comments here and some occasional comments on Bluesky I felt pretty confident for most of the day that Senate Dems were in the process of caving. Then I had to go offline for a couple hours in the late afternoon. I was a bit stunned and more than pleasantly surprised when I saw clips of Chuck Schumer’s floor speech saying that Senate Dems had the votes to block cloture. Wow, I thought: things were turning out better than I realized. I mean, if you have the votes to block cloture you block cloture, right?Pretty quickly I heard from multiple sources what was actually happening. This was a deal between Schumer and Thune to allow a brief performative episode to throw Democratic voters off the scent while the Democratic caucus allowed the bill to pass. The deal is this: Democrats agree to give up the 60 vote threshold in exchange for being allowed to offer amendments to the House bill. The “amendment” or “amendments” will likely be some version of Sen. Murray’s 30 day CR. It doesn’t even matter what they are. But this is all for show. Once you give up the 60 vote threshold the whole thing is over.

Our Emine Yucel was covering this story for us all day and she got it. Even as I was off getting bamboozled. Read Emine. I’ll have some more to say about this later. Mostly I don’t like being lied to. And suspect other Democrats won’t either.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-kabuki-cave

[Hekate]

20. Without further evidence (as opposed to opinion) I think I'll believe Chuck Schumer for the time being

[angrychair]

31. Have you seen the reporting on MSNBC?

The Chris Hayes interview with Sen. Alsobrooks? Her answers to Chris were evasive to say the least. I hope it's wrong too because right now it's taking all the willpower I have to not have a anxiety attack.

[Hekate]

34. Seen this?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/132143856

[angrychair]

35. It's awful

TSF is a jerk. Not sure what one has to do with the other.

[D00ver66]

22. If true

Schumer is playing with fire. Dems out played again. That’s been the issue the last 20-30 years even when Dems had majority. Very sad for America and the world.

[orangecrush]

23. Other posters on Bluesky

Doubted the veracity of the post.

[dobleremolque]

25. In his post, Josh Marshall said he'd love to be proven wrong, so

on Friday, or whenever the Senate takes it up, we'll see whether Marshall gets his wish.

[LymphocyteLover]

26. Maybe but that's not 100 % for sure right now

[Think. Again.]

28. The entire Democratic Party will lose voters if this is true and schumer goes through with it.

[Seeking Serenity]

29. It's all kayfabe anyway. No one is coming in on a white horse, sword in hand, to save us.

[Nanjeanne]

30. The American Federation of Government Employees largest govt employee union says NO to bill

The AFGE asks senators to vote “no” on the House-produced continuing resolution, and says that a shutdown is actually preferable to passing the bill.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biggest-federal-employee-unions-says-shutdown-is-preferable-to-elontrump-cr/ar-AA1AObHI]

That should be a big persuader to those who are saying they are concerned about federal workers.

[demmiblue]

36. ...

2/ The plan seems to be to vote for cloture and then Thune agrees as his part of the bargain to allow a vote on basically an amendment to the bill. Probably something like Murray's bill. So you give up the 60 vote threshold. Have a vote on each version and the GOP one wins. End of story.

3/ The point of this to temporarily confuse the issue so that Senate Ds can say they vote for their version while allowing the GOP version to pass. The critical point is that it's handing the GOP the 60 vote threshold for nothing.

[senseandsensibility]

37. Yup

Chuck found away to piss off the base even more. He should have just said he'd vote for it yesterday.