A word about the Senate

At least by Day 2 on the House floor, they had gotten to actual amendments.

Now, I'm not an expert in Senate rules, nor do I ever want to be. But I'm at a loss to understand why it is perfectly fine for a Senator to take the floor during a Farm Bill debate and start talking about illegal logging in China or the No Child Left Behind reauthorization. And what's this about constantly returning to "morning business"?

Listening all day had its moments, like when I had the opportunity to start yelling at my computer because a certain Arkansan started talking about needing to help "the poorest of the poor". Right. Except her votes show us that she cares much more about rice farmers than she does about voters who can hardly buy food, let alone give a campaign contribution.

And you have to smile at Sen. Conrad and his many, many charts. I feel sincerely sorry for the person on his staff who had to stay up late last night make all those.

Joking aside, it's been a whole lot of not much going on so far. The Center for Rural Affairs blog has a refreshingly funny blow-by-blow of what's going on, just in case you have something better to do than listen to members of the Agriculture Committee turn their faces blue telling us how progressive the reform in this bill is. What is really funny is the fact that the only people who are listening to them talk about it know that the bill is actually about as far away from progressive as one can get.

One can only hope that tomorrow will be more exciting. The Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitations Amendment might be debated, and if that happens, things could get much less cordial.