Avoiding a vote on President Obama's jobs bill, Senate Democrats Thursday night took the extraordinary step of changing Senate precedents by using a complex parliamentary maneuver to, in part, block a GOP bid to put Democrats on the record about the new White House economic plan.
"It is very unfortunate that Senator Harry Reid and his fellow Democrat Senators have changed the rules of the Senate," said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), "all because they refuse to take a vote on President Obama's jobs bill."
It was the second time this week that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had thwarted a Republican effort to force a vote on the Obama jobs bill - but this surprise move seemed likely to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of Senators in both parties.
"The Majority Leader in effect has overruled the Chair with a simple majority vote," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.
"We are fundamentally turning the Senate into the House," McConnell added, uttering almost the ultimate insider insult that one can throw around in the halls of Congress.
But Democrats saw it much differently, arguing Reid's move was needed to end what they say has been month after month of relentless GOP obstruction in the Senate.
"The Senate must have the ability to move forward on legislation that has broad bipartisan support," Reid said, venting his frustration with Republicans, accusing them of routinely filibustering every piece of legislation that comes through the Senate.
But Republicans countered that Reid had blocked amendments on this China currency bill - as he has on other measures this year - by "filling the tree," so as to prevent Republicans from offering any changes.
"You're frustrated because you feel like the tree is filled all the time," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
"But we're frustrated because the 60 vote rule - which has always been used here - is now used routinely, which it never had been done before," Schumer added.
Even though Democrats were going to win approval of the underlying China currency bill in coming days, they did not want to have to deal with a series of GOP motions to bring up other subjects that weren't germane to that bill.
Along with the President's jobs bill, Republicans also wanted to put Democrats on the record about a controversial plan by the EPA to regulate farm dust, which has generated strong opposition amongst agriculture interests - but Democrats refused to allow a vote on that.
Republicans wanted to try to use a bit of a loophole in Senate rules which has been used before, allowing any Senator to offer a "motion to suspend" the rules, thus permitting a vote in relation to an amendment that otherwise would not have been allowed after Senators had voted to shut off a filibuster.
Reid asked the Chair to declare those motions dilatory, but the Parliamentarian ruled against the Majority Leader, who then asked for a vote - and by 51-48, the Senate overruled the Chair.
In a sense, this was like the "nuclear option" fight during the Bush Administration, when Republicans threatened to use a simple majority of the Senate to change the rules and do away with filibusters on judicial nominations.
Back then, Republicans were in the majority and chafed at Democrats using the filibuster; now it is Democrats in the majority who are aggravated that Republicans are using the filibuster and other tactics.
What stopped the GOP from using that nuclear option (and changing the rules by a simple majority vote) was the "Gang of 14," a bipartisan group which argued that changing the rules and precedents of the Senate was a bad idea.
But things change when you go from the majority to the minority and vice versa, and so this time there were four members of the Gang of 14 who saw things differently and voted to change Senate precedent.
Sen. Dan Inouye (D-HI), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) all voted with Sen. Reid, while fellow Gang of 14 member Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) was the sole Democrat to vote with the GOP.
Pryor initially voted with Nelson against his party leadership, but then changed sides late in the vote; also voting late with Reid was Sen. Clare McCaskill (D-MO).
But even while Democrats were able to ward off an immediate vote on the President's jobs bill, the issue will be back before the Senate on Tuesday night, when Democrats will try to get 60 votes to start debate on the jobs plan.
As of right now, it seems unlikely that Republicans would agree to start debate on the jobs bill, but we'll see what happens on Tuesday evening.
One thing is clear, the Senate is an unhappy place right now, with both sides accusing the other of dealing in bad faith on a regular basis.
