Suspense In Senate: Debt Vote Shrouded In Secrecy

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Financial markets were watching, the retirement accounts of millions of Americans on the line.

Nervous senators were watching too, well aware that political fortunes could be on the line.

So on perhaps the most important vote of the year, the Senate did something extraordinary this week: It tried to keep the vote tally secret until the outcome was assured.

As lawmakers voted Wednesday on must-pass legislation to increase the government's debt limit, they dropped the parliamentary equivalent of a curtain on the voting as it was in progress.

Typically, roll-call votes in the Senate play out in a very public manner. People watching from the galleries or tracking action from afar via C-SPAN can watch democracy unfold in all its messy wonder.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEBT_LIMIT_VEILED_VOTE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-13-17-44-05

[okaawhatever]

1. You know the political landscape is really messed up when the Senate Minority Leader is

trying to hide his aye vote on NOT SHUTTING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT. I can't think of anything so desperate and sad. I don't feel bad for Mitch McConnell, don't get me wrong, just the state of affairs. He had to try and hide the fact that he would vote to do something Republicans have been doing routinely for decades. And of course, his aye vote was needed because of the filibuster by a freshman Senator and phD crazy person, Ted Cruz.
A whole lotta time and energy going into creating nothing. We should have locked them all in the Senate chamber and forced them to work on other issues while they were there. Let them earn their keep.