New Secret Hold?

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Don’t look now, but someone in Washington has apparently decided that it’s not fair for Sen. Ted Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd to hog all pork-hiding, dislcosure-obstructing glory. Rebecca Carr reports that, no sooner were Stevens and Byrd outed for blocking the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn and Sen. Barack Obama, a new anonymous Senator has placed a hold on the bill.

Mark Tapscott writes,

Looks to me like opponents of Coburn-Obama have decided to see how long the measure’s supporters in the Blogosphere can keep up the campaign of unmasking anonymous holders. There are more than 75 senators who are not co-sponsors of the bill.

If even a dozen or 15 of them agree to place successive anonymous holds after each new holder is unmasked – assuming they are – they could easily exhaust the legislative calendar and perhaps also the Blogosphere, thus effectively blocking consideration of the bill.

And don’t think there aren’t at least that many senators from both parties who would be more than happy to play a role in such a scenario.

That’s undoubtedly true, and a reminder that much of what happens in the Senate occurs not in open hearing or floor debate, but in the cloakrooms and backrooms away from public scrutiny.

Update: I’m hearing that Ted Stevens has put his own hold back on.