The utter brilliance of the ‘Demon Pass’

Deem and Pass. Demon Pass. The most unprecedented legislative tactic to ever be totally and completely precendented. The GOP is all adither. The conservative freak-out has begun. Grab the popcorn, kids, this is gonna be a doozy.

My first reaction to the news that House Dems might use the “Deem and Pass” procedure to pass the Senate health insurance reform bill and the sidecar amendment with one vote was “why the hell would they give that ammunition to the GOPosaurs???”

Then I did some reading on the internets and a light came on.

Brothers and sisters, this is AWESOME!!!

Why is this so awesome? Because by putting it out there that they are going to pass this legislation using a totally-precedented (but not widely known) procedure called “Deem and Pass”, Democrats now have Republicans clamoring for an “Up or Down Vote^TM“.

Check it out:

Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.):

“It’s very painful and troubling to see the gymnastics through which they are going to avoid accountability and I hope very much that, at the end of the day, that if we are going to have a vote, we will have a clean up-or-down vote that will allow the American people to see who is supporting this Senate bill and who is not supporting this Senate bill.”

Eric Cantor (R-Weaselville):

“This is a process that you can avoid a direct up or down vote on a bill. This is an attempt to hide the vote. Why do that? It’s so big, we should have an up or down vote.“

John Boehner (R-Tanfast):

This week, House Republicans intend to force a vote on a measure that would give the American people an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas):

“Let’s have an up-or-down vote on this bill and not hide behind some procedural mumbo jumbo.”

See how this works? You get them to call for an “Up or Down Vote^TM“. At this point they don’t even have to go through with it. They now have major Republicans on record calling for an “Up or Down Vote^TM“.

It’s brilliant, I tellzya. Just effing brilliant.

I’m just sayin’…

UPDATE: I realize that “up or down vote” applies mostly to the Senate because of the filibuster. However, having big-name Republicans calling for an “up or down” vote helps Dems regardless of which part of Congres is involved and makes Senate Republicans look quite foolish, in my opinion.
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