Abandoning Senate Norms, Al Franken Shuts Down Joe Lieberman: John McCain Responds, 'First Time I’ve Ever Seen a Member Denied...'

From Mediaite, "Senate Drama: Al Franken Shuts Down Joe Lieberman, Angers John McCain":

Today, Senator Joe Lieberman asked for an additional minute for the floor, but was denied by Senator Al Franken. This appeared to infuriate Senator John McCain. High drama indeed!

Actually, it's a fun bit of drama, according to TalkingPointsMemo (via Memeorandum).

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has the transcript:

Lieberman: “I wonder if I could ask unanimous consent for just an additional moment.”

Franken: “Um. In my capacity as a Senator from Minnesota, I object.

Lieberman: “Really. OK. I don’t take it personally. I will ask unanimous consent that the remainder of my remarks be included in the record as if read.”

Franken: “Without objection. The Senator from Arizona.”

McCain: "Mr. President I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Rhode Island be recognized for 10 minutes followed by the Senator from Michigan, the distinguished chairman of the Armed Services committee who will be speaking on the bill and that I be recognized to follow them.”

Unidentified: "I assume that that’s for 10 minutes each.”

Franken: "Is that for 10 minutes each?

McCain: "Yea. I do. But I just saw – I‘ve been around here 20-some years, first time I’ve ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. And I must say that I don’t know what’s happening here in this body, but I think it’s wrong. And so it’s fine with me that it be 10 minutes but I’ll tell you I’ve never seen a member denied an extra minute or so as the chair just did."

Levin: "… I think that the same thing did occur earlier this afternoon for reasons which have to do with trying to get this bill going, but any --"

McCain: "I just haven’t seen it before myself, and I don’t like it. And I think it harms the comedy of the senate not to allow one of our members at least a minute. I’m sure that time is urgent here but I doubt if it would be that urgent."

Leftists are getting a thrill up their legs, naturally.

Have to say there's something that just feels right about hearing people call Sen. Franken -- Mr. President. But even better is watching him essentially tell HoJo to STFU.

And here:

Senator McCain, you don't know what's going on here? It's called your buddy is a dick and everybody's tired of pretending he's not. That's what's going on here.

Of course it was McCain who got up to defend Joe! I bet he even took him out for a milk shake afterwards so that he could cry about it.

Also, at Hot Air, "Video: Franken refuses to give Lieberman extra time for ObamaCare speech":

Nutroots porn from the Senate floor as Stuart Smalley silences the left’s hate object. If it were anyone else, this could be dismissed as simple Grayson-style pandering to liberals, but given Franken’s “issues,” his pique here might well be from the heart. It’ll be fun watching lefties simultaneously argue (a) that this has nothing to do with Lieberman and simply reflects the urgency of keeping things moving in the Senate and (b) that Franken totally pwn3d Traitor Joe, and isn’t it nice to see a liberal who’s willing to fight fight fight the corporate phonies who blah blah blah.