Cord Byrd: “during this hot, sultry, high-gas-price summer, I urge the American people to take a minute to observe the U.S. Senate.…”

“during this hot, sultry, high-gas-price summer, I urge the American people to take a minute to observe the U.S. Senate. Take just a few minutes from the daily challenges of coping with the kids, driving them from camp to soccer grounds, going to church, worrying about how to cobble together enough money to manage even a brief family outing, and watching nightly news coverage of the Middle East imploding to focus, just briefly, on what is happening, or rather not happening, on this Senate floor. Instead of working to pass necessary legislation like the 11 remaining appropriations bills, which are now jammed up and waiting for movement like the cars in a typical rush hour on the Washington beltway, we are engaged in yet another leadership-driven message dance. These fandangoes feature bills which are meant to drive home political points to the unsuspecting American voter. The latest entry in this catalog of message bills is S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy bill, a bill cobbled together by the majority and then presented to the full Senate to vote on without opportunity for amendments. To anyone in these United States who is tempted to swallow the line that this sham bill now on the Senate floor is a solution to high petroleum and natural gas prices, I say think again.…”