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“As the Senator from Minnesota, I object.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman is on board with Demcare now, but nutroots hero Al Franken couldn’t help exercising his power as chair on the Senate floor this afternoon to deny Liebs an extra minute or two to finish some remarks this afternoon.

Call it nutroots red meat. Or blue meat.

Liebs reacts with amusement: “Really?”

Liebs’ old friend John McCain fumed at the petty behavior, calling for “comity” in the Senate chamber.

Maybe he meant “comedy:”

CSPAN vid here.

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Update 6:20pm Eastern:

Franken’s spokesperson justified the snit fit by telling a reporter that the urgency of passing the Senate defense authorization bill meant there was not a minute to spare:

Franken’s spokeswoman, Jess McIntosh, said that the Minnesota senator wouldn’t allow Lieberman to continue because time limits were being enforced by Senate leaders rushing to finish a defense spending bill and get to the health bill.

But as I type, Harry Reid is nearly an hour late to the Senate floor to make a motion to adjourn.

Ooutrageous outrage delaying decision-making for the troops!!!

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6:34pm Eastern: Reid shows up more than an hour later than he told other Senators to come to the floor. Apologizes and says “other business” prevented him from being on time. Moves to recess Senate until 12:01am. This will clear the way to hold the cloture vote on the defense authorization bill as early as 1 hour after the Senate convenes, so the Dems can rush into health care.

Which reminds me: Nope, still no sign of the Reid vapor bill yet.

6:55pm Eastern. Senate adjourned on 59-38 vote. Rush, rush, rush to the health care vote on a bill no one has seen yet.

After delaying motion to recess vote for an hour, Reid demagogues on terrible delays and accuses GOP of “playing political games.”

7:00pm Eastern: McConnell on the floor talking about how Demcare has become a “literal political nightmare.” And “they want to rush this bill through by Christmas?” And “here’s the most outrageous part: They want us to vote on a bill that no one outside majority leader’s conference room has seen. No one has seen it…This entire process is a complete charade.”