Whatever Happened to "Extraordinary Circumstances"?

I'll say this for Sen. John McCain. He thinks ahead.

During today's Senate floor debate, Sen. Carl Levin urged McCain and his fellow conservatives to refrain from filibustering his Iraq proposal, and allow for an "up-or-down" vote.

McCain shrugged him off, saying both parties have employed such procedural tactics in the past.

That wasn't McCain's song two years ago, when he joined the "Group of 14." [1]

The bipartisan group of senators formed [2] to prevent Republicans from scrapping the filibuster altogether, but also prevent Democrats from using the filibuster to block conservative activist judicial nominees.

As McCain declared on behalf of the Group of 14, filibusters should only occur "under extraordinary circumstances," and in turn, "we will try to do everything in our power to prevent filibusters in the future."

Apparently, it's an extraordinary circumstance if conservatives don't control the Senate, because as our "Filibustered" report shows [3], it's been one filibuster after another this year -- and the members of the Group of 14 haven't made a peep about it.

Including McCain, who, as our vote tally shows [4], has been filibustering his heart out (that is, when he shows up for votes).

Not terribly surprising, considering what he said in response [5] to his fellow conservatives who wanted to scrap the filibuster: "Republicans might have done something that they would have been sorry for if we were ever in the minority again...".

He may not always deliver the "straight talk." But the man thinks ahead.

As I and others have said earlier [6], under the Senate rules McCain and his minority brethren have every right to filibuster.

But the public has the right to know what conservative senators are doing, and to let them know how they feel about it.

UPDATE: ThinkProgress finds [7], "Nuclear Option Conservatives Embrace Permanent Filibuster For A Permanent Occupation"