Having failed to cement a legacy of note during his two terms in the Senate, Senator Jim Bunning seemed this week to relish his role as the obstructionist-in-chief, a rotating post to be sure passing ignominiously between various Republican Senators determined to wreck upon the rocks of ungovernability the SS Obama. One week it's Jim DeMint of South Carolina, another week it is Richard Shelby of Alabama, only to be followed by Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. This week the turn fell to Jim Bunning, the Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, whose blockade of the ship of state set new lows in the politics of the shameless cowardice.

In a Congressional session marked by stunts including the first ever all-encompassing hold on all executive nominees, Senator Bunning's actions stood out for his utter and complete disregard for the plight of unemployed Americans. As the Lexington Herald-Leader noted, it was an act of "callous grandstanding." Indeed while the Senator grandstanded, some 2,000 contract employees of the Department of Transportation were furloughed. Another 200,000 plus were at risk of losing the only social safety net available to them in the first week alone. By May, Bunning's disregard for his fellow citizens would have deprived 4 million Americans of some modest assistance in these troubled times. 

Tonight the Senate lifted Bunning's blockade voting 78 to 19 in favor of extending unemployment benefits after Senator Bunning dropped his objections in exchange for a largely symbolic vote on paying for the aid. 

The story from Roll Call:

Under increasing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) Tuesday night abandoned his one-man filibuster of a one-month extension to unemployment benefits and other programs.

In the end Bunning agreed to a deal allowing him one vote on an amendment to pay for the bill’s $10 billion cost. That proposal was offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last Thursday at the start of his filibuster, but Bunning rejected it because he feared his amendment would not pass.

Reid has also agreed to give Bunning two votes on amendments to a larger, one-year extension bill that is currently under consideration in the Senate.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he was pleased a deal could be reached.

“Bunning is coming back now, he has accepted our offer to have one offsetting amendment, which is an offer we made last week, and now he’s accepted it. I think it’s a new offset, we’re waiting to see. So, we’ll see where it goes,” Durbin said. “So it would give us two votes: offset amendment and final passage of the short-term [unemployment insurance].”

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday night on the short-term bill, which also includes payments for doctors and highway spending as well as other items.

Thousands of federal highway employees who had been furloughed as a result of Bunning’s filibuster will likely be able to return to work later this week, and unemployment insurance checks will be sent to recipients after several days of delay.

To ensure the deal is enforced, Bunning has placed a hold on all the items included in the nightly “wrap up,” which normally entails a unanimous consent agreement to pass noncontroversial nominations and bills, a GOP aide said. Once the votes have taken place that hold would be lifted, the aide explained.

Like Senator Shelby before him, Senator Bunning has now placed a hold on all executive branch nominees. Senator Bunning is letting go by holding on, will the madness that reigns in the Senate ever cease?