One Can Only Imagine...

Robert Costa at NRO reports:

In a surprise move, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, will seek a vote this afternoon on an amendment to prohibit the practice of trading votes for earmarks in the United States Senate. "Americans are disgusted by the earmarks, kickbacks, and backroom deals that have been used to buy votes for this health-care takeover," says DeMint to NRO. "I hope we can put every senator on record on whether they support this legislative bribery, and we'll know who is part of the problem."

The vote will be to suspend the rules of the Senate to get an up-or-down vote on his amendment. Motions to suspend Senate rules require the affirmative support of two-thirds of the Senate — 67 when all 100 senators are present and voting. It is important to note that DeMint's amendment would apply only to future legislation, not the current health-care bill.

Cool!  Not only is there considerable anger about this particular unsavory aspect of Congress (and on this, at least, both parties are very, very guilty), but this strikes me as precisely the kind of thing that Senate Republicans would have been doing for several weeks now if they really wanted to wreak havoc on DemCare in an attempt to actually kill it with a thousand small cuts.  As an added bonus, it'll be really interesting to see how the various Senators go on record in terms of the open buying of their votes.  Some are quite proud of their pork, of course, but I'm guessing there are more than a few who are now squirming because they pretend to be fiscally responsible when they're outside of Washington.

One can only imagine how things might have played out differently on DemCare if Sen. DeMint or Sen. Coburn was Minority Leader rather than Mitch 'Toss in the Towel' McConnell.

There's my two cents.