Last week, Senator Coons spoke to the Progressives Democrats for Delaware, and some of what he had to say was agreeable, some disagreeable, and some both at the same time. For example, he stated that at the beginning of the new Congress, the Senate had the opportunity to vote on the rules for the session, a vote that cannot be filibustered at all and can pass with a simple majority. Senator Coons, to his credit, was one of the Democratic Senators that joined Senator Tom Udall to reform the filibuster. Indeed, many of either the newly elected or more progressive Democratic Senators wanted to end the practice of filibuster and secret holds completely, for they had a silly notion that the Senate should be ruled by the majority and not the minority.
But Senator Coons and others signed onto Senator Udall’s plan as a compromise between the status quo and ending the practice altogether, and the reform centered on shifting the burden of the filibuster away from the majority in trying to pass something and unto the minority to sustain a filibuster. The Udall proposal would require that if a cloture vote fails (i.e. does not get 60 votes), then the Senate must keep with the subject at hand until cloture is reached, instead of switching to other business. If no Senator keeps the debate going, cloture will be assumed. The proposal would have also eliminated secret holds.
This proposal would have brought Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to life in some ways.
But alas, Coons said other Democrats said we will be back in the minority at some point in the future, maybe even as soon as 2013, and the filibuster and secret holds are a tool we want to use against President Perry, Speaker Cantor and Majority Leader Corynn as they repeal Obamacare, end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Departments of Labor, Energy, Education, Health and Human Services, and the EPA.
And so filibuster reform failed and life moved on as usual in the Senate, or in other words, horribly dysfunctional and undemocratic.
Last night, Harry Reid did something to upset that apple cart, and I say it is a good thing, and Democratic cowards like Carper will say it is a bad thing. Before we get into what Harry Reid did, let’s talk about what he did not do. He did not invoke the Nuclear Option, as some media portrayed it. Listen to Steve Benen and Dave Waldman on what actually happened.
But let me distill it down for you. Republicans were acting like jackasses in obstructing the passage of the currency bill so that they can play games with the Jobs bill. Cloture passed, which means 60 Senators voted to move forward with the currency bill, which means no unrelated amendments could be considered. Republicans still wanted to add the unrelated Jobs bill as an Amendment to Currency bill so they could get Democrats to vote against it so that they could say that the opposition to the Jobs bills was bipartisan. So Reid asked the Parliamentarian for a Point of Order declaring the Jobs Bill as an unrelated Amendment, and so some inexplicable reason the Parliamentarian said it was related. So Reid said Fuck you Parliamentarian and the Dems voted by a simple majority to overturn the Parliamentarian’s ruling.
McConnell, described as “visibly angry and shaken,” fumed to his colleagues, “We are fundamentally turning the Senate into the House. The minority’s out of business.” A GOP staffer added, “Just wait until they get into the minority!”
GOOD! The minority should be put of business, especially when the minority does everything possible to obstruct and prevent actual governance. Especially when the minority is actually doing everything it can to make America fail. The minority should be put out of business.
This maneuver was a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg time coming. The Republicans in the Senate and the House are legislative terrorists and they have been for some time. It has been long past time to punch them back in the face in response. So bravo to Reid.
The bedwetters among the Democrats and the beltway media will now start saying that this will come back to haunt the Dems in 2013 should the GOP gain a majority in the Senate. Guess what? What the Dems lacked the guts to do in 2009 and 2011 the GOP will definitely do in 2013 should they win: end the filibuster and secret holds. I guarantee you they will do that. Especially if the President is a Republican. If Obama is reelected, they may keep the holds in place so they can continue to obstruct him.
And I repeat… GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let there be no impediment to enacting what party’s agenda should it win the majority. For that way, the party’s agenda is clear to the people, whether it is the Republican Party we are talking about or the Democratic Party. And the people can judge that party better for what it does, rather than trying to decipher who is at for fault for something not getting passed.
So yes, if Obama looses next year, and the GOP gains the trifecta of the Presidency and both houses of Congress, I don’t want the filibuster and secret holds to prevent them from enacting their evil plans. I want their evil plans to be enacted. I want the voters who vote for them or not at all to suffer the consequences of that decision, and the consequences will be a stacked GOP Supreme Court, Federal Judiciary and the ending once and for all of the New Deal and Great Society programs.
Then maybe, with the filibuster gone, people will see more clearly.