Of course, it's entirely legal to pass legislation during the lame duck session. It's not like Congess ceases to exist between the elections and the swearing in of a new Congress. But, Democrats being Democrats, all the Republicans have to do is say "boo!" and they back away as quickly as they can. Really quite pathetic.
From The Hill:
The head of House Democrats’ campaign committee tried Tuesday to tamp down speculation that the party would try to push through major legislation during a lame-duck session of Congress this fall.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the assistant to the Speaker and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said “no one should think there’s some secret plan for after the election on big issues.”
“There’s no secret or overt plan to do something like that,” he told MSNBC.