Much has been made of Sen. Al Franken objecting to Sen. Joe Lieberman's request for more time to speak about health care on the Senate floor last week. The shoe was on the other foot today, but things played out a bit differently.
First, what happened last week: Sen. Joe Lieberman was delivering a speech about an amendment to the health care reform bill. When Lieberman's time expired, Franken (who was presiding) cut him off and then personally objected to the Connecticut senator's appeal to speak for several more moments. Majority Leader Harry Reid's office later clarified that Franken was merely following orders from Reid.
So today, when the president pro tempore of the Senate cut off Franken and he appealed for two minutes extra, at least some heads must have turned to the Republican side of the aisle. Franken himself looked (three times) to see if anyone was going to shoot him a taste of his own medicine, but no one did.
Of course, it's also worth noting that Republicans are dead set on extending the debate for as long as possible, making it unlikely that they would deny anyone more time to speak. An interesting moment, nonetheless.
Update: As for why the presiding officer didn't object this time, Franken spokester Casey Aden-Wansbury sends this explanation: "Leader Reid didn't need the presiding officer to object to extensions of time to speed things along today, so he didn't ask presiding officers to enforce the 10-minute rule, as he had done last week when Sen. Franken was presiding and Sen. Lieberman was speaking. But of course had Senator Franken been told that he couldn't get additional time, he certainly would have accepted that."
