Plumbing Ever Further Depths

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Just when I thought Republicans had plumbed the final depths of playground-level obstruction, they somehow manage to take things to yet another level. There is, it turns out, a rule stating that Senate hearings can’t go past 2 pm unless there’s unanimous consent to continue them. This consent was routine until this week. Amanda Terkel reports:

Today, during a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on transparency, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) announced that he had to stop the proceedings because of Republican blocks….The AP also reported today that Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) had a hearing on the bark beetle canceled today “after Republicans angry over the passage of health insurance reform legislation blocked it by using an obscure Senate rule requiring a unanimous consent to hold hearings scheduled after 2 p.m.”

What’s next? Complaints on Fox that Democrats are using all the good hangars in the cloakroom? A refusal to come to order until Spongebob is over? To call this behavior childish would be an insult to children everywhere. Are we really expected to take a party like this seriously?