The Rachel Maddow Show: Filibuster, Abuse It and Lose It?
Rachel Maddow points out the way the filibuster rule has been abused and how it looks like some Democrats are finally looking at putting an end to it. Howard Dean weighs in on whether the filibuster still has some merit and whether they should push to get rid of it or not. I agree with Dean that the Democrats need to start playing hardball. It worked with the Republicans finally letting a large number of President Obama's nominees get through when he threatened recess appointments if the Republicans continued to obstruct. Obama ‘wins showdown’ with Republicans as the Senate confirms 27 of his high-level nominees. I'd like to see more of this since the bullies obviously respond to nothing but being bullied back.
Maddow: In the spring of 2005 Senate Republicans led by then Majority Leader Bill Frist, started talking about something called the nuclear option. The nuclear option was a put up or shut up ultimatum to Senate Democrats. Allow up or down votes on President Bush’s judicial nominees or else. Or else Republicans would kill the filibuster, or get rid of it. Well now the Republicans never really had to go nuclear because Democrats were very afraid of this threat. Some of them went into I’m afraid deal making mode at the time. Fourteen Senators, seven Republicans and seven Democrats then stuck a deal to allow President Bush’s judicial nominees to go forward.
Crisis averted. The filibuster lived. Bush got his judges and Democrats kept the filibuster alive, although they promised not to use it very much. Great deal right? When Republicans threatened to go nuclear on Democrats back then it’s because Democrats they said were abusing the filibuster. Here’s what that looked like in that Congress. Fifty four filibusters when Democrats were in the minority at that time. Then when the Republicans became the minority in 2007…boing… one hundred and twelve filibusters.
Republicans now have a defacto standing filibuster on practically everything. They’ve made so that passing anything in the Senate requires sixty votes, a super majority every time. This situation has never existed before. This was not the situation in any previous Congress ever. Really. I know the beltway reporting makes it seem like sixty is normal. This is the way it’s always been. Democrats did it too when they were in the minority.
It is not true. This really has never happened before in the history of the U.S. Senate. When Republicans were mad about Democratic filibusters in 2005 and they threatened to kill the filibuster all together, Democrats were doing nothing anywhere near as extreme as what is being done now.
And so finally after starting to figure out that this is a problem, it’s the Democrats now who are coming around to a nuclear state of mind.
We know that they will do anything for enough money. WE know they are insane. It seems to me that voting republican is unAmerican.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
It's pretty ridiculous when I absolutely cannot stand the policies of the right wing politicians up here in Canada, and then I look at your country and I shake my head wondering if they're even human...
I mean, they're like cartoonish super-villains. Every last one of them is like Mr. Burns, only more publicly-homophobic-while-lusting-after-male-pages... I cannot say I envy you, but really, all I have to do is look at our health care system over yours to realize that there's not that much worthy of envy down there... I feel bad for you. Move up here progressives, we'll take care of you!
"I could give a flying crap about the political process.... We're an entertainment company."
- Glenn Beck - Forbes interview; April 26, 2010
.
and a place to live and I'm there!
But I am to old now to leave. I have wasted my life in this insane asylum we call America. I feel so ashamed of the republicans.
It is just unbelieveable that 25% of the country can be so stupid, so lacking in morals, without honesty or honor. It really is heart breaking to see the people on the bottom suffer while the 1% are living the highlife. I guess we are doomed to suffer the stupidity of the GOP! At least until we can get some serious mental health care for the republicans. God we are so fucked with their ignorance.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
America, the last thirty years, is the French Revolution in reverse.
I didn't come up with that, but it's spot on.
The problem is that the Democratic Party has become a clone of the GOP.
The best explanation I've read as to why the Obama we voted for isn't the Obama that is our president is to be found on www.huffingtonpost.com in left side column by Brenner. It is as eye opening as reading "Bush on the Couch". Please read it.
I wish my parents had been Canadian, living in Victoria, BC of course. It was my understanding that to live in Canada required one had a certain amount of funds available & skills Canada needed. Is this not true?
the fact that the Dems barely even bring this up sickens me.
what a bunch of idiots, with the memory span of fruit flies.
This is the one lesson all on the left should have learned after 8 years of cowboy bush and one year of rethug minority rule.
Is it the 21st century yet?
You will see clearly how corrupted both major parties are. We are going down the tubes & the spineless Dems want to massage the Repugs & bring them fresh drinks. Let the crazies take over in 2010 & 2012. Maybe out of the ashes will arise a party that will represent Main Street. I will no longer enable the Democratic Wing of the American Corporate Party. Damn both wings!
the democrats have wasted so much time already...
They are just place holders. Enact tort reform and the mission is accomplished. Total corporate control.
... but I haven't noticed any filibusters. It seems the threat of one is sufficient. I want to see these Republican strap on their Depend undergarments and go at it.
The threat of filibuster should not be sufficient to impede legislation. Let's get these morons out there on television, reading the phone book and so forth, with the obstructionism in full display.
Which means you probably never will see a Rushthugliklan filibuster.
The filibuster gives cover to all the Democrats who represent their corporate masters. The U.S. Senate long ago was taken over by the corporations. The Senate is merely a subsidiary of Wall Street. They take six-year turns screwing the average Joe/Jane and when they retire or lose, they merely move a few blocks away to lobby their buddies.
Should we be surprised? Two-wings of the American Corporate Party spend their time playing politics while the Nation burns down. Not only must the filibuster rule be terminated, but the purchasing of our government thru campaign bribes must be ended. A corporate owned Obama, his Blue Dog buddies & the entire GOP is an ongoing desaster. The so called two-party system prevents non-corporate owned parties from having any chance to win against the corrupted GOP & Dems. The best senator in the U.S.A. is an Independent-Bernie Sanders.
Of course we should maintain the filibuster. Just because the democrats lack the balls to actually MAKE people filibuster (apparently all republicans need to do is to SAY they're going to filibuster and dems roll over), and because they don't have the sand to actually mount one of their own when it comes down to it, it doesn't mean we should get rid of this tool. I remember when the Republicans were talking about doing away with the filibuster and I was equally appalled. Look, the fact is, the filibuster was put into place by our founding fathers as a way of keeping the majority in check. It's not ABUSED.
I've never understood that. Why the threat is just enough. But I disagree that it shouldn't be revoked. Yes, the dems will miss it but they barely used it compared to the republicans anyway and there are too many things that need to get done now and that are just being blocked by it.
Actually I've heard a couple of people, one on the Huffington Post and one caller on Stephanie Miller's show make what I think is a brilliant suggestion. Amend the fillibuster so that each party only gets a certain number every 3 months. That would preserve it as its supposed to be and put an end to the insane republican Obstructionism.
It seems to have worked for a very long time without causing a Constitutional crisis. If the Democrats actually forced the Republicans to filibuster for real, with C-SPAN showing the GOP shutting down the Senate, setting up cots, and reading speeches and phone books instead of helping solve the nation's problems, that might take care of the matter without having to take the drastic step of ending the filibuster.
As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
I say to the Dems, "NUKE 'EM."
Democrats are going to need it after the 2010 elections, as it will be the only way they will have any chance of stopping Republicans from finishing the job that GW started.
Think massive tax cuts for the wealthy; more conservative Supreme Court justices; overturning Roe v. Wade; more wars; etc., etc. All the things they want to do. Remember, as the minority party they are able to control the agenda.........when they are again the majority, look out!
For one thing I think dems will have a majority in the house for sure and probably the senate after 2010 but lets for the sake of argument assume a disaster occurs in and they lose majorities in both. They still have the president and he has this thing called a veto. I forget the exact rules but I'm sure it takes at LEAST as many votes to over-ride a veto as to stop a fillibuster, probably more.
ok americans the demos look spineless.
but follow the money that gets them reelected and you will see they must only pretend to represent the voters.
they must look like they are for the middle class but in reality money talks big in wash dc.
they are worst liars then the repubs.
at least the repubs are racists bottom feeders for corp america and dont pretend not to be.
in fact they take pride in their racism and war mongering and it gets them lots of followers. $$$$$$$$$$$$
the demos are liars to the core.
give up that demo reg and sign up independent.
it will reduce a lot of your anger.
the country is lost thank the universe for that for if imperialism and capitalism were successful what kind of universe would it be?
we create suffering all over the world with our capitalist agenda and our wars for profits and our cia cutthroating other countries agendas.
vietnam afghan and iraq are living proofs of our wars for profits agenda.
but in a dumbed down arrogant country that thinks it is best in everything in the world wars for profits are easy to sell.
"I agree with Dean that the Democrats need to start playing hardball" , well that makes three of us anyway . We best not hold our breath .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
The strategerie of the BLOCK and BLAME Republicans is continuing because the Dems cant grow a pair and stand up to them. They will continue to Block and Blame because it is all they have to offer. So,the Dems need to make them stand and actually fillibuster. make the work for it and stop rolling over like a bunch of lap dogs. no offence to lap dogs.
Instead of requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster, why not just make it so that you need 40 votes to keep it going?
Instead of the filibuster requiring only the bare minimum effort on behalf of the Repugs (a single yammering senator) -- they would need to keep 40 voting members there all the time to keep it going.
And that 40 number might grow by 1 every day, or every week. 41 42 43 44 ...
Actually, to be most fair, start the filibuster number at 1, and every day increase it by two. After 10 days they need 21 senators to maintain filibuster. After 20 days, they need 41 senators to maintain filibuster. And after 25 days, they'd need "51" (which of course means the absolute end of filibuster).
Multiple filibusters run concurrently. At the same time, ample time is allowed for debate or speech on any bill by any member, equally, regardless of party. After any speaker has finished (and between 8am and 5pm, M-F) a vote can be called by any member of the majority asking whether to maintain any one filibuster. If they don't have the votes to maintain it, then it's over. Voting on that bill may proceed immediately.
Things could get done.
Doesnt' exist anymore. Haven't seen a real filibuster in years. They need to make them do it the old-fashoned way, like in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . . . . .
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