Much ado was made about nothing yesterday when Al Franken, presiding over the Senate debate on Health Care, refused a request by Joe Lieberman to extend his speaking time beyond the allotted ten minutes. I first heard about it in an online link that referred to a "smackdown" and said something about "payback." But when I clicked and watched the video, it turned out to be a perfectly normal, civil exchange. Franken was enforcing a policy that applied to all, not just to Lieberman, and he said nothing insulting about Lieberman or the speech in progress. Lieberman accepted it with a smile. No fits, no fights, no feuds and no egos.
Two things made this into more than it was. First, tempers are raging about the Health Care Reform Bill and both sides saw a way to spin the exchange to their advantage. If you were for the bill, you could view it as that putz Lieberman finally getting slapped. If you were against the bill, you could see it as Al Franken demonstrating how rude Democrats can be to a fine statesman like Joe Lieberman. But if you think it was either, I think you weren't paying attention.
And then to make it worse, along comes John McCain, who rarely lets not knowing what he's talking about stop him from talking about something. He grabbed the floor and with outrage in his voice, insisted he'd never before seen a Senator refused an extra minute or so to conclude his remarks. In fact, as many have since noted, it has happened before. It had happened an hour or so earlier in the same debate yesterday and there are cases where McCain himself has cut someone off. I am so glad this man is not President.
And yeah, there's this other factor, as there always is: The insatiable lust of cable news for reportable melodrama. They made it out to be a big story…but we don't have to believe it is. And we shouldn't. There are enough real fights going on in Washington — some even about things that matter — that I don't see why we have to make them up.