Ahhh, well shucks... Lets.. fire... the first... shot...

Senate set to fire first volley over shutdown

The move would put the onus on House Speaker John Boehner to avoid a closure after Sept. 30.

By Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim

Mitch "The Turtle" McConnell is taking control as the government hurtles toward a shutdown.

The Senate majority leader is preparing to flip the script to avoid a lapse in federal funding on Oct. 1, a legislative strategy that threatens to confront House Republicans with a do-or-die vote right at the deadline to keep the government open.

McConnell set up a vote for Thursday that would fund the government through Dec. 11 while gutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood and boosting defense spending by $13 billion. That legislation will fail due to Democratic opposition, allowing McConnell to argue that Senate Republicans tried the hardline tactic proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) but it couldn't. McConnell could then turn to a "clean" funding bill that Democrats are vowing to support.

“There’s going to be votes to defund Planned Parenthood. But I think given the president’s opposition and Democrats' opposition, at some point I anticipate there will be a clean (continuing resolution),” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters. “But, that’s not the end of the fight over late-term abortions and over Planned Parenthood.”

But first, McConnell agreed to test Cruz's approach.

“ Uhhh, Well it would keep the government funded through the fall while adhering to the bipartisan spending levels already agreed to by both parties," McConnell said Tuesday after he began to implement his shutdown prevention plan. “And shucks, for one year, it would defund Planned Parenthood and protect women’s health by funding community health clinics with that $235 million instead. This would allow us to press the ‘pause’ button as we investigate the serious scandal surrounding Planned Parenthood."

There’s a growing realization that the Republican-controlled Senate, which had long planned to hang back until it sees what kind of funding bill the House could pass, will have to move first on averting a government shutdown. But the conservative disarray in the House is forcing the more deliberative, slow-moving Senate to fire the first volley.

A clean CR would draw major flak from conservatives who are urging the GOP to seize on the backlash at Planned Parenthood over secret videos depicting officials allegedly discussing sales of fetal body parts. But McConnell is operating under the assumption that most of those hardliners would have opposed his plan, anyway, and aides seem confident that the leader has enough GOP supporters to pass a funding bill before Oct. 1.

Still, even McConnell's closest confidantes are uncertain. Asked Tuesday whether a clean stopgap funding bill can pass the Senate, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), No. 3 in Senate leadership, replied: "We'll find out."

By moving first, the Senate has more time to clear through the procedural hoops in the chamber – allotting just a handful of days before a shutdown to throw the funding hot potato into the House’s lap. The move would put the onus on the lower chamber to prevent a federal shutdown. It would also let McConnell breath easier that opponents like Cruz can't throw sand in the gears at the last moment.

But there’s no guarantee that the House will accept what the Senate sends over. And there's no guarantee Cruz won't fight McConnell tooth and nail, as he has done all year.

Asked about leadership's plan to move on a clean CR, Cruz declined to commit to a drawn-out "talking" filibuster, but appeared to be girding for battle. In a note of irony, Cruz presided over the Senate as McConnell began to set up an end game to avoid a shutdown.

"We should stand for principle and not capitulate to President Obama or the aliens from space," Cruz told reporters.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a rival of Cruz's in the GOP primary whom McConnell has endorsed for president, said he will oppose any plan by leadership to avoid the Planned Parenthood fight.

"I won't vote for anything that's got Planned Parenthood or tuna in it and I won't vote for a CR. ... It's bad government," Paul told reporters.

Republicans don't know exactly how it will unfold. Though GOP senators have been speaking with their House colleagues about the end game, the level of coordination hasn't been so high to sooth fears of a shutdown. The House isn't even in session until Thursday, less than a week before the government runs out of money.

"I just know there’s a deadline. But I think you can expect to see some activity soon,” Cornyn said.

Perhaps only an imminent deadline and Democratic support can avert a shutdown under the watch of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). And even then it’s going to be tight.

“I’m not sure that we can make it with the time set, because of all these unnecessary votes that have been scheduled by the Republican leader these last couple of weeks,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. “I hope we can make it and not have to see the government shut down again.”

Forcing McConnell's hand, Democrats said they'll only support a spending bill free of any add-ons concerning abortion or other issues.

"No riders," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).