This is precisely what Republican leadership deserved to get when recruiting and backing unhinged zealots like the newly elected Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Now the
Republican conference in the Senate is as ungovernable as the House Republican conference.
Sens. Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio used a hardball procedural tactic on Thursday to force contentious votes on a bill allowing congressional review of a nuclear deal with Iran, a move that jeopardizes the measure’s future.
After being blocked by Democrats for several days, Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rubio (R-Fla.) used a parliamentary procedure to attempt to compel votes on amendments that would make Iran relinquish its nuclear facilities before getting economic sanctions relief and require that Iran recognize Israel’s statehood as a condition of any nuclear deal.
Cotton and Rubio’s maneuver, made under the guidance of top conservative policy aides, blew up a tentative agreement to vote on several other amendments on Thursday, likely including one from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would require Congress affirmatively vote for any nuclear deal with Iran. But that series was unlikely to include Cotton and Rubio’s proposals and a frustrated Cotton instead forced the chamber to consider their proposals.
Just consider that for a moment. Cruz had an amendment that wasn't as extreme as Cotton's or Rubio's (who is in presidential campaign mode and laboring under the misconception that he'll get the Jewish vote). Cotton, on the other hand, is viewing himself as some kind of fucking savior of the Senate or something. When Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, actually managed to get the White House to agree to his plan along with Senate Democrats—that's called "winning," called out the senator's poison pills, Cotton responded "I would say these are not poison pills. These are vitamin pills."
The man is a total nutjob, as bad as any in the House who has over and over and over snatched Republican defeat from the jaws of victory. And no one deserves this more than Mitch McConnell.