know i love numbers and i love counting votes. 62 republicans voted no on the bill today. 62 republicans. there s almost no way to offset that. the republicans have tried to save face on this face plant. they sent out their numbers guy today, former vice presidential candidate paul ryan. they sent him out to try to make the case that it wasn t republicans fault that they failed on this thing, it was democrats fault. the democrats promised 40 votes and they didn t deliver the votes that they had promised. our leaders brought the bill to the floor based upon the commitment that democrats from the agricultural districts made, and then during consideration of this bill on the floor they reneged on the commitment of the 40 votes that they promised and the bill went down. oh, no. see, if this is the analysis that makes republicans feel better about completely losing control of the house and having no idea what will happen there from day to day and vote to vote even though they re sup
she said in the emergency room they have what s called rape kits that the woman, she ll get cleaned out. can t believe i have to say this, but rape kits, for the record, are the kit that s used to collect forensic samples from a rape victim s body to be used in potential prosecution of the rapist. the sponsor of this legislation in texas apparently thinks a rape kit is an abortion? has no idea what a rape kit is, but she thinks it miraculously solves the problem of a rape-causing pregnancy. cleans her out. ah. so the magic rape kit thing happened very late last night, as democrats were stretching out the debate on this abortion ban in texas, in a texas state capitol full of pro-choice protesters. the republicans finally cut off debate and adjourned at 4:30 this morning saying they d be back a couple hours later to reconvene at 6:46 a.m. to try to pass the bill. 6:46 a.m. they d been up and in session until 4:30.
the republicans were having none of that. and when the republican sponsor of the bill tried to explain her reasoning for why rape victims should not be spared, that s when things went awry. you have hospital emergency rooms. we have funded what s called rape kits that will help the woman, basically clean her out, and, again, hopefully that will alleviate that. this is the sponsor of the big omnibus antiabortion bill republicans are trying to pass in texas. she says rape kits alleviate the problem. the exact quote was rape kits that will help the woman, basically cleaning her out. a democratic representative then interrupted and asked her to
here. paul ryan says we thought we would have 40 votes from democrats, but 16 of them reneged. look at the number of republican votes there. if you add to that number the 16 lost democrats who paul ryan says would have made all the difference, the bill still fails. they would still be seven votes shy of winning. the problem is not that they lost democrats by making the bill too conservative. even if they had kept all of those democrats, they still would have lost anyway because of their own side. the republicans problem is that they lost so many republicans, including paul ryan himself, who voted against it. and they were so surprised by their own side losing it for them, they had no idea what happened. they still do not understand it. they are bewildered by their own failure. and that is the game plan they say they are going to use to pass immigration reform. and maybe they will. but in assessing that possibility it seems important to note that the republican leadership in congress h
midnight. and now state senator wendy davis of texas says she personally will filibuster the antiabortion bill and just stand on the floor and personally keep talking until the midnight deadline to stop it from being voted on in the senate. that, of course, would stop everything in the special session from passing. stop a huge transportation spending bill, stop a big juvenile justice bill. but also this ban that would shut down 37 clinics in the state, it would ban abortion everywhere in texas at 20 weeks, it would effectively ban all legal abortion in all of west texas. wendy davis and the democrats say they will hold the floor all night, again, and as long as it takes to stop it. republicans, meanwhile, say they will do anything it takes to get it passed. and the protesters, the citizens filibuster, has raised a real question as to who is actually going to win this fight. texas, who knew. we ll keep you posted.