Fitzgerald also said that even after Democrats return, Republicans would consider possible discipline for them, such as reprimanding them, censuring them or expelling them from the Senate.
The standards committee ruled on 1 February that the Tory leader of the council should receive training in ethics after censuring him for bringing his office into disrepute.
Attempts by the UK and France to push through a UN Security Council resolution censuring Syria have faltered and this tells us much about the new realities of diplomacy in a "multi-polar" world.