Crossing The Floor

By Sniffles

Are we cats pleased with the three Senate votes we witnessed at 2 AM today? As the Famous Quitter from Alaska would say, you betcha.

And speaking of the Famous Quitter, we wonder how she feels about the fact that the Trump mobsters threatened her state's two Senators on the skinny Obamacare repeal. Will anyone ask her? Not that she matters — but after her 2008 running mate's thumb's down last night, it's instructive to remember that it was he who elevated Sarah Palin to national prominence, and helped pave the way for the hideous monster who inhabits the Oval Office today.

But okay, feline hissy fit over.

We'd like to turn toward more constructive matters, and reiterate our invitation to Senators Murkowski and Collins to give up on their soulless shell of a party and join us Democrats. In fact, let's extend the invite to John McCain, too. Why the hell not?

Or, if that's too much, after all the verbal threats by guy Republicans, and the abuse of the process by the loathsome Mitch McConnell, and the impassioned pleas to return to regular order and forswear governing in the dark — would Murkowski, Collins and McCain consider staying with the GOP or going Independent, but caucusing with the Ds?

Watching the Senate video from early this morning, and listening anew to Chuck Schumer's emotional remarks after the vote, we think it's not impossible. In fact, Schumer — who could be way more wily than the oft-fawned-over amphibian from Kentucky — might be trying to make it happen right now. Such a deal could, for example, require Democrats to agree that Murkowski, Collins and McCain retain their committee chairmanships. But since we believe in government and the GOP extremists don't, we can see it happening.

Well, that's probably a pipe dream. But in the meantime, we cats have Chuck Cadman on our minds. Who's that, you ask? He was an Independent (formerly Conservative) Canadian Member of Parliament from British Columbia who, having just had chemotherapy for malignant melanoma, flew to Ottawa in May of 2005 to cast a deciding vote on the national budget. And in the process, he saved the teetering Liberal government of Paul Martin to fight another day.

Sadly, Cadman died a couple of months later. We don't know what's going to happen to John McCain, but we can tell you this: Somewhere today, Ted Kennedy is smiling. We cats PURR.

(P.S. It's worth noting that McCain was not the only cancer-stricken member in the upper chamber last night. Senator Mazie Horono (D-Hawaii), with Stage 4 kidney cancer, also voted a lifesaving no. We cats PURR again.)

UPDATE: POLITICO has caught up with us, which makes us grin.