Senate schedules 6:30 am vote on DeVos BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 02/02/17 06:27 PM EST

[Mountain Mule]

Source: THE HILL

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled a vote at 6:30 a.m. Friday, an unusually early time, to advance Betsy DeVoss nomination to serve as secretary of Education.

Senate Republicans say they are getting fed up with Democratic obstruction and the extra early vote will allow them to get a head start in running time off the procedural clock.

McConnell is confident he will have the 51 votes he needs Friday to end debate on DeVos...

By voting at 6:30 a.m., Republicans have a chance of confirming DeVos by late Monday but if Democrats drag out the post-cloture debate for the full 30 hours, it could lag intoTuesday.

McConnell and other GOP leaders are confident that there will be no other Republican defections on DeVos. They expect she will win confirmation next week with 51 votes after Vice President Pence weighs in to break an expected tie...

- more



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/317675-senate-schedules-630-am-vote-on-devos

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I was at an organizing meeting for my local dem grassroots group when one of the other attendees got a notification on her I-phone that McConnell had moved up the confirmation vote for DeVos. Coincidentally enough (or was it?), we had just been discussing strategy on how to express our displeasure with a possible "yes" vote on the part of one of our Republican Congressmen who seems to no longer have the staff available to answer calls from his constituents. We got the news here in Colorado at 8:30 pm MST. The vote will take place on Friday, 4:30 am MST, 3:30 am Pacific Time, and 5:30 am Central. In other words, in the small hours of the morning for most of the country when everyone is still asleep; and announced after everyone had closed up shop for the day on Thursday evening.

Way to go Mitch, wouldn't want any one on your side of the aisle have constituents call up before a crucial vote and possibly make a representative from a non-gerrymandered district change his mind. I'm calling anyhow to leave a message on Colorado Representative Cory Gardener's voicemail to let him know how displeased we Colorado folk are and that we have verrry long memories and sure won't forget this caper! GRRR!

[zentrum]

1. One thing I have to say...

The Repugs sure know how to play the power game better than Dems.

We lack the ruthless gene. But it's too bad in times like this.

[mobeau69]

2. Having the majority helps.

2018 my be our only real hope.

[cstanleytech]

4. To be honest 2018 will probably only be modest gains.

To get the shift we need to a balanced and sane Congress will be the work of decades just like the Republicans as they didn't achieve it overnight but rather they spent years building their powerbase from the lowest level on up.

[zentrum]

6. They built from the bottom

...up since the days of Reagan. They were methodical and stealthy. They were also funded a lot by Koch--way back when.

It's really like wolves sneaking up and surrounding a camp late at night.

[cstanleytech]

7. Exactly, we can still retake our country from them but it won't be easy.

[zentrum]

8. Not easy and it

....took them 40 years. Which we don't have. We have like four months to turn this around.

Also hate is very energizing. They hated gay rights, civil rights, women's choice, multiculturalism.

We aren't fueled by the rage they seemed to feel ever since the Civil Rights era. So we get distracted. They have been much more mission-oriented.

[cstanleytech]

10. Well its going to take us alot longer than 4 months as changes like that dont happen overnight.

Best we can hope for atm is to use the courts to stop the Republicans but that wont be easy either with a right leaning court.

[Mountain Mule]

9. Good analogy!

I live in rural Colorado, and you should hear the coyotes howling across the field from my house. They come out to do evening performances often, but tonight is the loudest and closest I've ever heard them. My dog has his hackles up and the two cats have gone into hiding. Feels like an omen or something.

[Initech]

3. Oh this is rich!! The republicans complaining about obstructing? Boo fucking hoo!!

They did it for 8 years and repeatedly denied Obama a SCOTUS pick. Fuck you GOP!

[NYC Liberal]

5. Shades of the tactics used by convicted felons Hastert/Delay.

I remember them holding a vote open on a bill for 3-4 hours before it finally passed in the middle of the night around 3 a.m.

And who can forget the Terri Schiavo bill that was shoved through and signed by Shrub at 2 a.m.?

[C Moon]

11. McConnell and Ryan come down to one thing: they hate the constitution, the process it creates,

and they hate the United States.
One thing assholes: without us, YOU wouldn't have a paycheck or healthcare.

[LeftInTX]

12. What if Repubs decide to sleep in

And Dems show up in mass?

[Mountain Mule]

13. HA! HA!

I think my gang of Dems tonight would have hopped a plane and done just that except that we'd have had to drive 400 miles to Denver to try to catch a plane that left on time. This has been quite an evening - I've gone from determined/happy to angry to worried to determined again. I need to go get some sleep and wake up to all those Dems showing up in DC as the Repugs are still all sleeping off their hang-overs from their premature victory celebration!

[Achilleaze]

14. "Republicans say they are getting fed up with Democratic obstruction..."

hypocrisy gold