It's different if you're a republican

[pecunium]

Remember all those complaints the Democratic Minority wasn't giving the presidential nominees the "straight up or down" vote they deserved?

The comments that the president ought get the appointments he asks for?

That the Senate was supposed to advise, and the consent was pro-forma?

Now that the Republicans are in the minority, it seems things have changed. Now principles matter, and those can't be sacrificed, just to give the president what he wants. On a procedural vote, the Republicans in the Senate have stopped a federal appointment to the Dept. of the Interior.

This crap needs to change. I am not saying do away with the filibuster. I am saying the filibuster needs to be onerous again. It used to be a filibuster was an ordeal. The people who were maintaining it had to actively hold the floor.

West Wing had a moving episode about it.

Only it hasn't been that way in more than thirty years. After the filibuster of Abe Fortas the rues were changed. One, more senators were required to support the filibuster (it went from two thirds, to three fifths) and two, the filibusters were moved to only the morning sessions. By default all that's needed now is to have 41 senators who won't stop it, and hold the floor until lunch.

But even that's not required. Saying they want to filibuster is enough to bottle the legislation. Which means the filibuster is painless. Given the number of Blue-Dog Democrats, getting 41 senators to vote for cloture is hard, even when the numbers appear to be there (that's why the Republicans tried to invoke the Nuclear Option; they had a bare majority, and couldn't invoke cloture. They got around it by co-opting a bunch of Blue-Dogs, and so making pretty much impossible for the Dems to get the votes to stop it).

Reid can insist on doing it for real, but the habit is so strong, to just let the procedural filibuster happen, that it's only been done on a budget bill.

It has to stop. If the filibuster is to be kept (it's a parliamentary rule, not a constitutional requirement. The House allowed it until the 1840s) it has to be work. The people who oppose a piece of legislation need to be willing to stand up and be seen.

Comments

[warclaw.livejournal.com]

The reason I think they won't move to change things is quite simple:

By allowing the Republicans to take this obstructionist stance, the Democrats accomplish two things that are near and dear to a politicians heart.

1: They build in an excuse for if/when things get worse, or fail to improve fast enough for the public's taste. "It's not OUR fault, if those darned Republicans hadn't blocked us from doing what was needed, we'd be doing MUCH better. Blame THEM, not us!"

And 2: The current obstructionist stance taken by the Republicans is NOT being received well in general by the public, and as they continue with it, public opinion swings farther away from them. Most Democratic politicians are quite happy to allow the Republicans to shoot themselves in both feet repeatedly....if only with an eye towards the next election cycle.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The thing is... no one gets told the Republicans are being obstructionist.

What we read is, "The bill could 't get the 60 votes neede to pass the Senate." In the House and Senate races last time around the Republicans used the results of their obstructionism to beat up on the Democrats. They said, "they have a majority, and practically nothing was passed. It was the most inactive Legislative period of all time."

To add to this, they've been blaming the Democrats for not using their minority time to put brakes on Republican excess. It's their way of saying they are doing the people's business by obstructing things.

In short, IOKIYAR.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of inactive legislatures. The less they do, the less they can screw up. I seem to be in the minority on this.