Senate So Mad At Obama For Letting Them Override His Veto Of Their Piss-Ignorant Bill. No. Really.
Seriously guys? Guys?
Look, ain't nobody wanna side with the Saudis against 9/11 victims' families. We get it! Which is why we had a very happy shiny bipartisan moment this week when the Senate voted 97-1 to override Barack Obama's veto of a bill allowing 9/11 people to sue Saudi Arabia. Ninety-seven to 1! Why does Harry Reid hate 9/11 victims and love Saudi princes?!?
Oh, wait. There's a tiny little problem with the bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), and that is, once we dive into that little briar patch, every person the US has ever accidentally killed -- say, in a Doctors Without Borders hospital, by accident -- probably has a whole lot of living relatives who could sue Barack Obama! Or anybody we've droned! Or any wedding parties that went whoopsies! Maybe you think 'good, fuck that guy!' and 'justice' and stuff, but it actually is a whole rusty freight car of worms.
Luckily, we know who is to blame for the Senate overriding Obama's veto of the bill, and it is (hold on to your hats!) Barack Obama.
No. Really. Just ask Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“That was a good example, it seems to me, of a failure to communicate early about the potential consequences of a piece of legislation,” McConnell told reporters before Congress got out of town until after the elections. “By the time everybody seemed to focus on some potential consequences of it, members had already basically taken a position.”
“I think it was just a ball dropped,” McConnell added. “I wish the president — I hate to blame everything on him, and I don’t — but it would have been helpful had he, uh, we had a discussion about this much earlier than last week.”
John Cornyn, of Texas, was even more of a dick, blaming Obama for being "MIA" on the legislation after blaming him for ... well, let's let him tell it.
“Unfortunately, the administration has worked to undercut progress of this legislation at every turn,” Cornyn said.
“It appears that the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops to keep this bill from moving forward before the president’s visit to Riyadh,” he said. “I wish the President and his aides would spend as much time and energy working with us in a bipartisan manner as they have working against us trying to prevent victims of terrorism from receiving the justice they deserve.”
You know what would have been even more helpful than Barack Obama saying "no, really, don't pass this legislation," or, "no, really, I am vetoing this legislation now"? If Barack Obama had just come out for it! Then they wouldn't have passed it, and we'd all be golden! WHY DIDN'T YOU COME OUT FOR THE BAD LEGISLATION, BARACK OBAMA, SO ALL THE REPUBLICANS COULD VOTE AGAINST IT?
Thanks for nothing, JERK.
“It appears that the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops to keep this bill from moving forward before the president’s visit to Riyadh,”
Like forcing the Senate to take a 6-week summer break.
“This is a decision I do not take lightly,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, one of the legislation’s authors. “This bill is near and dear to my heart as a New Yorker, because it would allow the victims of 9/11 to pursue some small measure of justice, finally giving them a legal avenue to pursue foreign sponsors of the terrorist attack that took from them the lives of their loved ones.”
Whenever you need a Democrat to be as shallow and pandery as the GOP Chuck never disappoints.