Is the Senate GOP Growing Cajones?

Looks like they're getting a mite sick of Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, and "Dingy" Harry Reid:

A funny thing happened on the way to the nation's highest forum last week. After Harry Reid attempted to use the well of the U.S. Senate to advance his party's frivolous attempt at ousting Karl Rove for outing Joe Wilson's wife, GOP leaders actually fought back. After four years of quietly beating the minority to a pulp behind the scenes and at the ballot box, Bill Frist and company exhibited a rare public display of political payback.

Amid the undulating and ever-changing accusations of Republican skullduggery, the liberal left -- ever reliant on its faithful media wing -- finally turned its attention away from the balmy climes of Guantanamo Bay and focused on its favorite beltway bogeyman, Rove.

Against this latest threat to national security, Democrats sent the steely-eyed sniper Reid and his poisoned legislative pen to write the following amendment (#1222) to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill:

No Federal employee who discloses, or has disclosed, classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be permitted to hold a security clearance for access to such information.

Faster than you can say "ex post facto law," the majority leapt into action. Cherry-cheeked assassin Mitch McConnell then asked that the Frist Amendment (#1223) be read:

Any federal officeholder who makes references to a classified Federal Bureau of Investigation report on the floor of the United States Senate, or any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent's comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk, shall not be permitted access to such information or to hold a security clearance for access to such information.

Childish though this Durbin-for-Rove tit-for-tat may seem, it marked a rare defiance by Republicans in the face of the liberal mud-slinging machine. Right-wing supporters have clearly longed for some red meat from their Senate leaders and have generally come up hungry. Not this time.

If only the Senate Dems were as enthusiastic about getting rid of Osama bin Laden.