clever turtle

I never imagined having anything nice to say about Mitch McConnell, one of the nastiest pieces of human refuse ever. But today, his call for a straight, up-or-down vote on both parties' tax plans was an excellent move, both strategically and ideologically.

The Associated Press story on this development points out that McConnell's move puts the ball into the Democrats' court, and that they're going to have to now literally put the nation's money where their mouths are.

In an announcement that seemed to surprise Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor that he was accepting a Democratic offer to hold back-to-back roll calls on both parties' bills, with each measure requiring just a simple majority for passage.

The new plan puts pressure on Democrats to avoid an embarrassing defeat of their own tax cut plan, which closely resembles proposals by President Barack Obama to extend tax cuts for all but the nation's highest earners. Republicans want the high earners to keep their tax cuts, too.

This is where the condom meets the highway, so to speak. The Democrats keep telling us that it's those other guys who are owned by the corporations and one-percenters, not them. McConnell is forcing them to either vote for what they say they believe in -- extending the tax cuts for the poor, middle-class, and semi-rich, and allowing them to expire for the truly wealthy -- or stand exposed as the biggest hypocrites this side of Vatican City.

What will our heroes do now? My guess is they'll show their awareness of which side of their bread has the butter. Those Senators from hotly-contested states have a tit in the wringer, that's for sure.

Or, they could pass their tax proposal with a lot of posturing and self-serving bloviation, then amend it to death in the lame duck session. Nobody in the Senate just recently fell off the turnip truck, and they all know how the game is played. Problem is, so do a lot of us who are watching them. Closely.

I hope I'm wrong. Progressive thinking on this matter is that it doesn't make a bit of difference which party is in charge, since they're both in on the grand theft. We'll see.