Rand Paul mucks up flood insurance bill

This is why the Senate can't get anything done. The Tea Party Republicans are professional asshats. Even when they have an important bill on the floor that actually has bi-partisan support, some grandstanding idiot GOPer like Rand Paul holds flood insurance hostage to pander to his zygote worshipping cult.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) moved this week to hold a noncontroversial flood insurance bill hostage until the Senate agrees that life begins at fertilization.

The bill, which would financially boost the National Flood Insurance Program on the cusp of hurricane season, had been expected to pass easily in the Senate. But since Paul on Monday offered an unrelated "fetal personhood" amendment, which would give legal protections to fetuses from the moment of fertilization, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is threatening to halt progress on the legislation.

"I'm told last night that one of our Republican senators wants to offer an amendment -- listen to this one -- wants to offer an amendment on when life begins," Reid said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "I am not going to put up with that on flood insurance. I can be condemned by outside sources; my friends can say, 'Let them have a vote on it.' There will not be a vote on that on flood insurance. We'll either do flood insurance with the amendments that deal with flood insurance, or we won't do it. We'll have an extension."

I've long thought the amendment procress is in serious need of an overhaul. It would eliminate a lot of time wasted on horsetrading and increase transparency of the process if they never allowed unrelated amendments to be brought forward. It should be a rule, not an exception to the norm.

Good for Harry for finally drawing a line. Hope he holds to it. The media circus around that showdown would reinforce the GOP War on Women narrative and piss off every homeowner in a flood zone. It's a win for Dems. Sadly, knowing Harry, I expect he'll crumble like a coffeecake at the first mean word in the national media.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]