If the Bush administration had pulled this...

[MrsSmith]

Imagine the headlines the next morning if the Bush administration had pulled something like this.

Billions of dollars passed through Congress' empty chambers

Given the billions of dollars in new spending and tax cuts Congress approved Friday morning, it is surprising just how few lawmakers had a hand in the final denouement.

All told, with such momentous issues at stake, only a dozen lawmakers were present for the action, which happened in an amazing 2½ minutes of total floor time.

...

Tim Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican, told CNN he had considered objecting but said the timing of the deal left him no time to make it back to Washington.

"By the time we were notified that the unanimous consent agreement would be offered, where I come from in Kansas, I can't get to Washington quick enough on this short notice," he told the network on Friday.

...

The bill passed and signed into law Friday didn't even exist until 10:30 Friday morning when it was officially introduced — half an hour after the Senate had deemed it to have passed.

In order to head off potential mischief in that time gap, Mr. Reid wrote into the Senate's agreement that the language must exactly match that of the bill the Senate passed last weekend, or else the prearranged consent of senators would be withdrawn and the bill would not have passed the upper chamber.

The media would be screaming bloody murder all across the world if Bush had spent billions of dollars with the approval of a handful of Congress, passed on a vacation day with Washington empty.  

[a777pilot]

If it were not for the double standard the Democrats would have no standards at all.

[Boudicca]

If it were not for the double standard the Democrats would have no standards at all.

Excellent observation!