Friday, December 14, 2007

Holds

Harry Reid likes Tom Coburn's holds, especially when it prevents prosecutions of civil rights-era murders.

The bill is named after Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman. His killers were never convicted.

The legislation would authorize $10-million annually over 10 years for the Justice Department to rejuvenate its prosecutions of pre-1970 civil rights murders. It calls for another $3.5-million annually for Justice to provide grants and other help to local law enforcement agencies.

The man most responsible for obstructing the measure is Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican. Coburn says he supports the cause but feels the FBI can pursue the cases with existing resources.

A spending hawk, Coburn has put a hold on the legislation and dozens of other bills that would increase the federal budget without offsetting costs elsewhere.

"It's absolutely outrageous that one senator and one senator only appears to be blocking us from passing this piece of legislation," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.


Of course, as we're learning, these holds only have power when Harry Reid lets them have power. The only person blocking this legislation is Harry Reid, who likes Tom Coburn's holds. Any protestations by Jim Manley are simply theater, little lies for those of us in the peanut gallery.

Reid will, of course, not honor Chris Dodd's hold. Because he doesn't have to.