Rachel Maddow talked to Rep. Anthony Weiner about his outburst on the floor of the House back in July when Republicans were doing their best to use procedural moves to prevent the 9-11 first responder's bill from making it through the House. Congressman Weiner expressed his concerns that this might be the last chance to get the bill passed because he doesn't have much hope of the House bringing this back up for a vote once the Republicans take control in January.
I hope Harry Reid makes the Senate stay there through Christmas if they decide to keep blocking this bill. Rachel asked Anthony Weiner about his response to John McCain, who "described work on this bill as fooling around" and whether or not procedure matters.
WEINER: Well look, I think of all of the people who understand the sincerity of this, John McCain at least in theory should. Look, I think what sometimes my friends in the Senate don't realize is that what they think is regular day to day procedural maneuvering looks to the rest of the country as standing in the way of really letting democracy work. But in this case, literally we have this universe of people and we think it's about 10,000 people; no one is dying to get... no, that's a wrong use of words. No one wants to get this benefit. It's not like an entitlement. No one's trying to get toxic stew in their lungs to go then be able to sign up for the 9-11 first responders program.
We figured out a way to pay for it. It's completely paid for now. And we have the votes and so for John McCain to say this is some kind of a game or a stunt... no. This is us trying to do frankly what I think we should have done on September 11th and we're trying to finally do now. And I would just say to my Senate colleagues if there is one issue all year that should transcend politics, it really should be this one.
It should be, but nothing transcends politics when it comes to the Republicans and who they're willing to sacrifice to score political points. Weiner went on to explain why he voted against the agreement on extending the Bush (or now Obama) tax cuts and why it was such a bad idea.
