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Subscribe to RSSOn the Senate's first day back after its Thanksgiving recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stressed the urgency of finding middle ground on upcoming issues -- but also found himself disagreeing with the opposition over making changes in wielding the filibuster in the chamber.
Reid began by quoting the late Dwight Eisenhower, "People talk about the middle of the road as though it is unacceptable to make the point that too often Republicans and Democrats in Washington face off from positions never realizing solutions rest not on one side or the other, but somewhere in the middle." The majority leader said he hoped members "used Thanksgiving not only to give thanks, but to reflect on the monumental times ahead."
In response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed that the Senate has a full plate in the coming weeks, and the importance of the decisions made. He also touched on the importance reaching a middle ground. "The only balanced approach is one that includes real and lasting reforms," he said. "So republicans have stepped out of our comfort zone. We've been clear about what we will do and what we won't. And yet we remain at an impasse."
McConnell added, "The election is over... The time for campaigning is over. It's time for the president to lead. We'll continue to wait on the president, and hope that he has what it takes to bring people together to forge a compromise. If he does, we'll get there. If he doesn't, we won't. It's as simple as that."
But then came the disagreement -- over an effort by some Democrats to alter the rules of the Senate.
McConnell called these proposed changes an "affront to the American people," saying that "shutting off [the minority's] right to express the views of our constituents, as is being proposed, would effectively shut these people out of the process." He repeatedly said that Reid plans to "break the rules in order to change the rules."
Reid countered that the changes he is proposing would only help to make the senate "more efficient" by fixing problems with the filibuster. He said "Americans believe Congress is broken. The only ones who disagree are Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party."
According to Politico, Democrats are considering several options to reform the filibuster.
The menu of options has included banning filibusters that block the start of floor debates and House-Senate conference committees from convening. Another change would force senators to actually get up and talk endlessly in order to filibuster legislation – in the mold of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
Also on the table is a so-called “nuclear option,” which would call for just a simple majority, or 51 votes, to change Senate rules. Changing the rules usually requires two-thirds of the chamber, or 67 votes. The proposed package of changes, which will come in the beginning of the next Congress, has yet to be finalized.
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McConnell and the entire GOP is held hostage by the TeaPeople and Grover.....He delights in the idea of the minority in the Senate being able to hold hostage the majority!
Get you pitchforks and shovels out Republicans because the liberals only know one thing VIOLENCE WILL SOLVE AMERICAS LIBERAL PROBLEM !!!!
Johnny, maybe you should lay off the crack pipe before posting. In any case, seek help now, seriously!
the minority in the Senate is irrelevant because the GOP holds the House.
It mattered before 2011 when Ms. Fright Night was still the Speaker.
Chesty,
The minority is not irrelevant because under existing filibuster rules it blocks many need appointments and thereby delays the work of government.
Well what the deranged fiberal above was referring to was "hostaging the majority" as in Senate majority actions, not presidential appointments. As in bills Dems in Congress want to pass.
But, yah they have the power to to block the Pres' people...hope they block Susan Rice for her lies about Benghazi.
Bills, appointments...you name it, the minority can, will, and has blocked just about everything.
Which is why this change in filibuster rules isn't just appropriate, but should have been done in 2011. That time Republicans were Lucy with the football to the Democrats' Charlie Brown. They insisted that any differences could and would be worked out...all the while having a secret plan to obstruct the entire business of the Senate and agenda of the President.
So this time if the GOPTP wants to block everything they should be required to stand and read the phone book into the Congressional Record, hour after hour. If something is important enough to block it's important enough to do it out in the open. The American people will understand and Republicans will win them over.
If, on the other hand, it's important to get the job done with unrealized threats to filibuster and secret holds it's because Conservatives have priorities that are out of step with the American people.
The results of the just-concluded election point toward that second scenario.
It is clear and obvious now to EVERYONE. This election was a double, triple and beyond ... MANDATE(S).
Republicans have not spoken nor walked of honor for 4 years now. Nothing more, nothing less. Republicans will move to the middle BIGTIME or suffer the consequences.
A couple little clues for you republicans: Do not mess with the middle class (ever) and find some decent leadership (now).
I can't stand Mitch McConnell because he led Republicans to become obstructionists, and stopped Republicans from working for the American People by allowing themselves to become obsessed with trying to make President Obama "a one-term President" instead of doing their jobs.
McConnell doesn't seem to even consider the American People because he tends to put his personal agenda before ANYTHING else.
Doing away with the filibuster is not necessarily a good thing but if you believe that strongly about filibustering a bill you should actually have to stand there and do it now all it takes is one saying their going to and they never have to show up it is dead.
Not doing away with it. Procedure is now all you have to do is declare a fillabuster. The dems only want to change it back where you have to talk for hours. It wouldn't do the country very much good stop entirely.
The Reich Wing doesn't want to give up on making Obama a failure (missed out on that one term president thing though) and holding the middle class hostage at the behest of their corporate masters.
Return the filibuster rules to the way they were originally and get congress moving!
Rocky Mountain...a lesson for you Democrat idiots, you usually lose the middle class and did again in the last election.
You can keep talking about them all the time, but your dependency politics and hatred of white people, religion and the family unit, are generally against what middle class people believe.
You lost people who make over $50K by 7% according to CNN, and you won people making under $30K by 28 pts in another poll.
You won the "who can mention the middle class in more sentences" race in 2012...the usual stupid Democrat 'identity group politics' nonsense...but didn't do so well with those actual voters.
Certainly if Republicans are proud enough of their principles to filibuster they should be proud enough of them to draw attention to those principles by conducting a proper filibuster. The filibuster as currently conducted isn't really a statement of principle, it's sabotage under cover of darkness.
Who Stole the American Dream by Hendrik Smith
Average Americans frustrated by the eternal gridlock in Congress have no idea
of the machine-gun frequency with which the filibuster—or the threat of a
filibuster—is exploited. This is mainly because voters do not see live
filibusters. The Senate long ago found a way to sidestep the televised drama of
marathon filibusters like the one Jimmy Stewart staged in Hollywood’s Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington or the twenty-four-hour, eighteen-minute talkathon by Senator
Strom Thurmond, the die-hard segregationist from South Carolina who defied
biology and a Senate majority to block a civil rights bill in 1957.
To avoid tying up the Senate full-time in prolonged filibusters with senators
sleeping in their offices, former Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield devised
a two-track procedure in the 1960s. On one track, the Senate proceeded with
normal business, while on a second track it took a quick test vote to see if it
had a sixty-vote majority to invoke cloture. If the majority leader lacked the
sixty votes, that bill was deemed dead on arrival. No fuss, no muss, no vote—not
even a debate. Voters rarely realized that a bill had been killed by a phantom
filibuster. What this meant was that a minority of forty-one senators—and often
fewer than that—could prevent a majority of fifty-nine from even bringing up a
bill for debate. In practical terms, said Senator Tom Udall, a New Mexico
Democrat, “every vote in the Senate now is sixty votes, which is what you need
to cut off the debate. The will of the majority can be blocked by a minority.
You have tyranny of the minority—and the public doesn’t even realize it.”
What’s more, because the Senate operates under the rule of unanimous consent
to bring up any bill, a single senator can block action by invoking a “personal
hold”—long known as “the silent filibuster” because the senator did not have to
identify himself or utter a word in public. The senator could set up a
legislative blockade by sending a private written notice to the leadership of
intention to filibuster a bill or a presidential appointment. A hold stopped the
action because it forced the majority leader either to drop the proposal, make a
backroom deal, or go through the Sisyphean task of scouring up sixty votes and
using many hours of precious floor time to apply cloture. A silent filibuster
was, in effect, a one-senator veto.
Originally, personal holds were granted as a courtesy to a senator who was
ill, was out of town, or needed more time to consider a measure. But in the
modern era of partisan combat, holds are used routinely to tie the majority in
knots or to extract some concession from the White House or Senate leaders on an
unrelated measure. As Norman Ornstein explained, “A hold is a hostage-taking
weapon for individual senators.”
Great summary of the situation, JM. As long as Senators took their responsibility to "the world's greatest deliberative body" seriously it was never a problem. Now it's a problem on nearly every single bill, appointment, or procedural change the Senate considers.
One of the lesser known "features" of a nuclear blast is a giant electromagnetic pulse with the ability to destroy all sensitive electronics well beyond the blast radius. That's effectively what Republicans have done since the beginning of 2009...short circuit the entire Senate in order to prevent the work of the citizenry from being conducted in the way it was intended.
The Dumb Demoncats wanted to use the Filibuster on Supreme Court justices back in 2005-06, remember those scum?
And how they were squealing about the "nuclear option"?
Good thing we had the Gang of 14 to head 'em off.
Republicans were against it then, in fact coined the term "nuclear option" to frighten the voters. Now they're all about it.
As an aside Democrats were right at the time to oppose the nominations of Roberts and Alito. They ushered in perhaps the most corrupt SCOTUS in the nation's history.
The Filibuster Shouldn't Exist
It's irrelevant right now, because the Dems also don't have the House, and the Dems used it to block more appellate court nominees of President Bush than any other Senate had in history during his terms, but yes, for both sides,
it should be ended.
It's extraconstitutional, and unnecessary, and bad for America. The checks and balances on one party are already achieved through 2 houses of the legislature and the presidency, plus the Supreme Court in dire instances.
If it's irrelevant to you then you shouldn't mind us getting rid of the FAKE "filibuster" and the personal hold. We'll be happy to retain the REAL filibuster, we have no problem with Senators getting up and arguing their positions and beliefs for as long as they can stand it.
Well, idiot, I did just say it shouldn't exist, so getting rid of the individual holds on bills would apply too.
You said what "it" shouldn't exist? No one should have any problem with a Senator getting up on his feet and arguing his point for as long as he can. The Senate is supposed to be a deliberative body. That means you "deliberate" yourself, by being required to be in attendance while someone you disagree with speaks his mind to you. Kind of like forcing climate change deniers to sit through all of "An Inconvenient Truth" and then take a test afterwards. Then they can't claim,"I haven't watched it, but from what I've been told....."
It is their job to get informed on subjects for us, before they form opinions on legislation. The filibuster can help fill the information void, especially in the age of C-SPAN.
The issue of the filibuster is not irrelevant, nor should we get rid of the REAL filibuster, nor should the Democrats retire the FAKE filibuster until they have used it the same number of times that the RE-peat-the-LIE-to-the-PUBLIC-ans have.
For once I agree with Chesty! The filibuster should be done away with.
If Mitch McConnell is involved, we all know what he's after - making sure Obama fails. Can't they dump him for someone who gives a damn about our country!
There is nothing wrong with the REAL filibuster. Why can't you people understand this? There are three kinds of filibuster. REAL: Get up and argue your point until 60 Senators vote for cloture, everybody in the Senate has to stay in the building for quorum calls, and no other work can be done until the filibuster ends, usually wastes about a week before a vote for passage by 51 votes is undertaken. FAKE: 41 Senators "vote" to inform Leadership that they can stop a cloture vote from being able to succeed in stopping an upcoming filibuster. 59 votes won't be enough to end the threatened filibuster early so, the bill gets shelved indefinitely. The minority wins!?!? That's messed up! UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
PERSONAL HOLD: Essentially a one man filibuster with protected anonymity. Ridiculous. A Personal hold should have a time limit of one day for the first Senator who uses it and one hour for the next, on any given bill or motion.
Keep the real filibuster, it requires the effort and debate that the Senate is supposed to provide on the issues. Get rid of the FAKE filibuster, the FUFINO, it is unConstitutional and undemocratic. Limit the personal hold.
Yes. This. If they had to stay in session and be made uncomfortable (pizza and cots do get old quickly) work would get done.
Let them put their beliefs where their mouths are. Literally.
newday - I'm thinking pizza is MUCH too good. Cold cuts, water and cots.
Or bread and water!
newday - okay - bread and water! Much better!
Some of the proposals regarding reform to the filibuster SHOULD be adopted immediately. They would not even change the impact of protecting the minority position, They would invoke sacrifice and honesty [things in short supply at the Capitol]
For example, If one side wishes to filibuster, it should be required to maintain at least 41 Senators in Chamber and in their seats with a member of that minority actually speaking for the entire length of the filibuster. If they fail to maintain that number, the filibuster is forfeit. Right now, they just proclaim a filibuster and go out to fundraisers which is not what the rule was intended for. The point of a filibuster is to debate until you can potentially get sufficient information out to persuade a change in opinion and votes. It should not be allowed simply to hold legislation hostage as has been done the past 4 years.
If the GOP will not reform the filibuster rules, then in 2014 the mission should be to elect at least 67 Senators who will vote for reform. The public should support candidates to the Senate who will commit to reforming the rules in order to allow the work of Congress to get done.
"Mickey Mouse Mitch McConnell" has never retracked his statement to destroy this President at all costs. His "Mickey Mouse McCoinnell's Club" in the US Senate has not forgotten their marching orders.
Progressive - yes but now Republicans are seeing that they are viewed as obstructionists and I think they're beginning to see that 2014 could be a bloodbath if they don't work to help get the country moving faster. McConnell should be shelved as quickly as possible!
.
Hey, SeekingSanity,
.
You are heard...loud and clear...
.
Those who haven't heard you should be called...SeekInSanity
McConnell is a dinosaur, walnut sized brain and all. Go ahead, bring your lazy obstructing back-sides back to the hill for round two. And don't let me be the last one to say good-bye to you.
Pretending to do the work of his "constitchency"... And if that were true, we wouldn't want them around either. Let their voice carry the weight of their voice and it would become quiet enough to just ignore. Let them amplify their voices through dogs like this and bad filibuster rules and the agony of an entire nation is prolonged for the same outcome. All we need is an accurate accounting and an equal voice for this dying breed so we might pay them the deserved amount of attention.
I AM ONE OF HIS CONSTITUENTS!!! And not 1 day has he represented me, and when he and Kyle blocked the unemployment extension bill we picketed his office!!!
He's up in 2014 and Kentucky has a Dem Governor. Rove bought and paid for Rand Paul and my new R rep Andy Barr after "swift boating Chandler". If we can get Ashley Judd to commit we can have some fun in Kentucky!!
McConnell is done for his failure to do his job to save this economy, our jobs, and our lives from this hell he and Bush built!!!! He could have been a hero instead he was ignorant and decided to play political games with our lives and we're pissed!! And this last election was with a lot of pissed off people showing up and giving the GOP a bitchslap!
He used the filibuster like an IUD against everyone of us by stopping small business credits and jobs bills and the Agriculture bil, transportation bill, airport control center upgrades, dams and bridges and hundreds of appointments.
We want this "procedural crap" cleaned up and these people to earn their checks! None of us would even have a job with the performance I've seen on C-span.
51 votes is supposed to pass most of these bills-60 is perverted political terrorism!
YES! The real filibuster should be reinstated to force senators to deliberate. One other rule should be imposed. That the senators CANNOT leave the senate chambers until the business is resolved. Lockdown with armed forces to ensure no "escape" and no cell phones, television, newspapers, books, laptops or other forms of communication or media sources allowed until the topic of discussion is RESOLVED. They WILL focus!!
Be careful what you wish for. The filibuster should require continuous deliberation. However, only a Recon would want it gone. Americans have short memories, W will soon be forgotten- his lost wars and his economic collapse People will again think they are rich and the recons will eventually take the senate. And remember, we are only given a competent president for 4 more years. After that, all bets are off.
I am also all for slowing down the process. Had congress moved slower in 2002, we might not be in the mess we are today. Everything was fine in 2000, sometimes doing nothing is what we need. I know, it sounds conservative- it is. I'm all for going back to the good old days- 1999.
You shouldn't be able to filibuster a procedural vote to go to debate. Everything should be debatable. Why not put a time limit on the debate time?
Filibusters can be totally SECRET! That's BS! It only take 1 crazy MFer to stop a transportation bill everybody wanted, or Rand Paul blocking a debate for automatic shutoff valves on natural gas lines 2 weeks after we had an explosion in Lexington! And how many people have died in the last 3 months because of no auto shut off valves and the industry wanted it! It should be a National Security issue for how easily terrorists could get to our infrastructure. That's just 1 example of why the rule has got to go.
Stone Walling Is What It's Been All About With The Republicans -- They Will Continue To Do So As Long As We Let Them -- The Era Of Personal Agendas Versus The Nations Agendas Is Coming To A Close And It's About Time! The Dems Won Again -- The President Is A Dem -- And There Are More Dems In Congress Now -- The Republican Body Count Is On A Rapid Rise -- And 2014 & 2016 Are Just Around The Next Two Corners -- Higher Tax Rates, Closing Loop Holes And Spending Cuts Are All Needed And Coming To Pay For Your Republican Bills -- Your Wars -- Your Recession -- Your Job Loses -- Your Failed Policies Of Unchecked Spending -- Not Ours!
Reid's brain is a filibuster. Works the same way. Total dullard.
You leftie flakes have convenient memories. Do some homework on Demolefties filibusters during the Bush years and get back to us with what you find. You won't because they were even worse.
Facts are stubborn things.
Bush never should have been President. JEB stole it for him in Florida, and the SCOTUS essentially appointed him to the Presidency (5-4) by over-ruling the Florida Supreme Courts ruling that ALL the votes should be RECOUNTED.
Bush deserved no respect or co-operation, and he proved that on 9/11/2001. Fake filibustering him was much less pain than he deserved. The Dems have still used the FAKE filibuster, the FINO, far less than the Republicans.
Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and the rest of the GOP have abused the filibuster in the last four years creating a situation where the minority had more control than the majority.
This is insane and must be addressed. When people take advantage of a rule then it is time to adjust said rule. I agree with Harry Reid and the rule must be changed so that if you want to filibuster you are still able but you’ll have to actually work for it now.
The changes proposed by Senator Reid will only reduce filibuster abuse. It will not eliminate minority’s ability to stall legislation.
BTW - Dems will have to live with same rule change if and when they become the minority. Seems like a win win.
Rebel,
You are either being disingenuous or you are extrordinarily uninformed. The GOP threatened the "Nuclear Option" under Bill Frist over the filibuster of 10 Federal Judiciary appointments. Since the Democrats lost the supermajority in 2009 the GOP has used the filibuster over 100 times in each session. It has become common on all legislation even housekeeping matters like raising the debt ceiling which got our credit rating dropped costing billions in increased interest. When the credit rating of a country is dropped they are forced to borrow at a higher rate. I has never been used to subvert reconciliation or budgetary matters and has been primarily been a GOP tool since Eisenhower currently we would have had twice as many but nominees are being stonewalled in comittee and things like budget proposals are branded DOA before they are submitted and are therefore not even submitted. The current filibuster and cloture system was started in 1919 and proved unwieldy needing 67 votes for cloture and was amended in 1975. The filibuster has been used to subvert civil rights legislation and the seating of Judicial Nominees. There have only been three Cabinet nominees in the last 125 years Tower due to alcohol abuse and womanizing, Lewis Strauss under Eisenhower who had been making Senate enemies for a decade as head of the AEC and his revoking of Oppenheimers security clearance and Charles B Warren under Coolidge who was subverted by the Governor of Michigan who had also been under consideration for the post.
The filibuster has NO Constitutional basis and was implimented as a Senate rule to expedite legislation and was not used as a blocking mechanism until 1837. The Supreme Court in US v Balin in 1892 the Supreme Court ruled that Senate rules can be amended by a simple majority. The filibuster and cloture mechanism's have been amended and changed numerous times since their inception with major changes as recently as 1975.
jkh
Jesus! They used the FAKE Filibuster 100s of times, not the real filibuster. Stop mixing up the issue. You give them credit for something that they did NOT do.
Most of the public doesn't know that the FAKE filibuster, the FINO, doesn't involve any one Senator standing and arguing their point to exhaustion. That is why it is FAKE!
When discussing the Filibuster Reform issue, you have to distinguish between the three versions of "filibuster", or nothing reformative will get done. Stop sabotaging our efforts to make the Senate work, and the Senators in the minority actually do the work that they should if they want to delay.
Reid is nothing and has done nothing to help. He threatened to not allow any bills made from the republican party
on the floor. He has been a hinderance and will again. Obama has a lot of staff members that were around in Chicago when he was . Yes, I disagree with both parties about things they do. And we have the good with the bad in both of them. When we might have decent government is when people quit voting party and vote for who will do the most for our country. Most of these so called representatives of our country are in there for fame and fortune. And believe me some of them are taking home a fat wallet. They get elected for what they agree to give the lobbyist. Americans have became deaf, dumb, and blind. Whenall of America stand up and tells them, you either start working for us or get out, there will be little change. So that makes us either blind and deaf or just plain stupid. Mary Correll