The stench of sausage being made: "Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers 'deem' the health-care bill to be passed. The tactic — known as a '"self-executing rule' or a 'deem and pass' [the self-parodying 'Slaughter Solution'] — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill."
"For those asking — it's 'Deem and Pass' — not 'Demon Pass' …lol," twittered an unsuspecting Jake Tapper yesterday afternoon, presumably unaware that he was about to set off a #demonpass hashtag frenzy in the twittersphere. At just about the same time, Ann Althouse was publishing a blogpost on "deem and pass," AKA Nancy Pelosi's prestidigitational attempt to pass the looming Senate health-care bill without House members' voting on it:
Is this what it all comes down to in the end, something that we must struggle even to comprehend, let alone swallow? If it does, how will the members of Congress, when they go home to their constituents, even begin to explain what they have done? Citizens are already angry and resistant to the health care bill. Can you imagine the shouts of derision and outrage that will drown out any attempt to describe what the hell it means to deem and pass.
Sensing blood, we tossed a little chum into the water in a tweet to Melissa Clouthier that prompted Jake to twitter back in playful protest:
lol no I didn't — "deem and pass" … stop it, you satan worshippers :)
"Guess that's how rumors get started. ; )," we taunted. One retweet led to another. This from Dr. Clouthier:
I like Demon pass. Take credit, Jake. It's gonna be big. ;)And soon the situation was completely out of hand, as we dutifully informed Mr. Tapper:
LOOK WHAT YOU STARTED: RT @steveegg: @MelissaTweets @SissyWillis Let's start the #DemonPass hashtag :-)
For the record, in our own neck of the social-networking woods it was Steve Eggleston who first suggested the #DemonPass hashtag (now used variously with or without caps). Meanwhile, quite independenty, Althouse was updating her deem-and-pass blogpost:
ADDED: Think of the legislative process as a long drive through the mountains and... Oh, no! Up ahead! It's Demon Pass
Just after midnight this morning, Investors Business Daily had caught wind:
Imagine Tea Party rallies with hundreds of “Demon Pass” signs and crowds chanting that slogan outside swing Democrats’ offices day after day.
Cosmic convergence? It's definitely in the air. We hear the powers that be on the left side of the aisle have convinced themselves the sheeple in the outer pastures have no interest in how lamb sausage is made. Baa!
Beaten Path: The much-mocked Carly Fiorina's "Demon Sheep Ad," where it all started.
Update: This just in from RedState as we go to press: '"Slaughter Rule' Strategy Unprecedented."
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