Wednesday Open Thread [6.26.13]

Last night was something pretty amazing to see. Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered the unconstitutional and rape-approving Abortion Ban for nearly 13 hours, until the Republicans played some trickery to end it. You see, in Texas, when you filibuster a bill, your comments in filibustering have to be germane to the bill you are filibustering. So you cannot just stand up there and read the phone book. Seems like a fair rule. Well, it depends on how you apply it. The Republicans felt the term “Sonogram” was not germane to a discussion of abortion. Well, the chamber descended into chaos at that ruling, with the galley, packed with Davis’ supporters and supporters for women’s rights and reproductive freedom, began shouting “LET HER SPEAK” repeatedly, and would not shut up to let Lt. Governor Drew Dewhurst run the chamber. I passed out around there, but I gather that the Democrats filed motion after motion appealing the ruling, and I gather that they were successful in running out the clock to midnight. Under Texas law, the legislative session ends at midnight on the 25th of June, and no bill passed after that is considered a validly passed law. The Republicans, of course, ignored the law and passed the bill anyway. So expect court battles over that. For more info, see here.

The Republican Party reacted to the events by fireboming Senator Davis’ office. You think I am kidding. I am not. Because Wendy Davis engaged in a democratic process and filibustered a bill to stand up for women’s rights, Republicans committed an act of terrorism against her.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “starkly warned Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) not to eliminate the filibuster on presidential nominations, warning that he’ll end the 60-vote threshold for everything, including bills, if becomes the majority leader.” Good. I fully expect the GOP to do this anyway if they ever win back the Senate, so this threat is an empty one. If I want the hostage shot, it does nothing to me to threaten to shoot the hostage. Like Walter Frey said on Game of Thrones… “I’ll find another.”

Charlie Cook:

As the immigration issue moves front and center in Congress, a chorus of GOP voices is warning that if immigrants—and, let’s face it, the debate is focused mostly on those from Mexico, Central America, and South America—are provided a path to citizenship, Republicans will never again win a national election. The same people also argue that Republicans would find it much harder to win statewide races in places such as Texas that now routinely fall into the GOP column. Implicit in both arguments is the notion that Republicans will remain a competitive party nationally and stay dominant in certain states if they can prevent Hispanic immigrants from becoming citizens and gaining voting rights.

But that position ignores the fact that the 45.5 million Hispanics already in this country legally are registering to vote and are seeing the Republican Party as distinctly hostile. The more the GOP comes to be seen as fighting immigration reform, the more difficult it will be for Republican candidates to compete for this group of voters. Remember, 50,000 Hispanic citizens reach voting age every month.