Here’s Why We Need Senate Reform
Who died and made Jim DeMint the King of America?
South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session.
Bret Bernhardt, DeMint’s chief of staff, said in an e-mail to GOP aides that his boss would place a hold on all legislation that has not been cleared by both parties by the end of the day Tuesday.
Any senator can place a hold to block legislation – and overcoming that would require the Senate to take time-consuming steps to invoke cloture, which would require 60 votes.
With the Senate slated to adjourn Thursday untiil after the elections, DeMint’s stance could mean trouble for Democrats if the two parties don’t quickly agree on a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating past Sept. 30. And that could mean the demise of a slew of other stalled and largely non-controversial bills that both parties are looking to clear before Election Day.
Because our Senate is so ridiculous, one Senator could actually shut down the government. All it takes is the will to do it. The Senate could get the bills moving by invoking cloture but that takes a lot of time – they have to wait 30 hours for a vote after cloture passes to vote on the bill. Our country can not continue to operate this way – we have real issues that need to be addressed but instead politics has turned into a football game.
Tags: Jim DeMint, Senate Reform, U.S. Senate
Any senator can place a hold to block legislation
Prediction: If Repubs take the Senate, Dems will develop spontaneous mass amnesia about this rule.
As well they should — until the rules are changed.
Senate Dems problem is that they won’t do it enough….
Actually, it takes 41 Senators. It just takes one Senator to start the ball rolling. C’mon guys, think it through.
“Prediction: If Repubs take the Senate, Dems will develop spontaneous mass amnesia about this rule.”
agree agree agree. Look at the dregs that could be our new senate majority. O’Donnell, Randy NoSe, Angle…. if these people take control the senate and we cant filibuster their extremist agenda, you can expect the driving agenda to be “AMERICA WINS!”… and “who cares if your dad raped you, you are having that baby and we are going to malign you if you have to go on welfare to support it!”
right now they are abusing the filibuster, but not NEARLY as much as they would abuse power if they called the shots.
It takes less than 41. The Senate rules are so ridiculous that the burden is on the majority to get 60 votes for cloture. So at least one Republican would have to cross over (which is likely but not certain these days). Even if cloture is successful then there’s still a 30 hour clock that is set before the next vote is placed. If DeMint blocks unanimous consent he’s filibustering. That means cloture has to be invoked.
the failure here is with the Dems and the Media for not taking the republicans to task. Americans by and large are too stupid and too lazy to realize what has been going on. They see people saying nothing is getting done, and things are getting worse and believe it because no one is making the case to the contrary and the person telling them “really loves America”
Shame on the Dems for got getting dirty. Shame on them for not using Rovian tactics. It is sad, but it is what works and if we have to play on their level to beat them, so be it. There is much more at risk here than feeling good about “having played a good fair game”
the Teabaggers will NEVER play fair. Never have.
Thank God for Alan Grayson. at least someone has balls.
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I agree with A. price. A few years ago when the GOP was in control, a group of 14 senators, 7 from each party, agreed to some silly no-filibuster rule. It was a great way for the GOP senate to get through whatever it wanted. I emailed Carper, one of the 14, to tell him he had been played, that the GOP would never be party to such an agreement when it was in the minority. Do you think even John McCain, the “maverick” who also was part of this group, would agree to this today? Dems are the majority, they should act like it.
it’s too late now. We are lookin at another 4-6 years before we have the type of congressional people-scape (is that a word) that will allow for real progressive legislation.
the American people need to see the “failed policies of the Obama agenda”… many of which havent begun… begin to work, and they need ot see these frauds take office.
again, too stupid and too lazy to find out the truth until it is shoved in their face via war with Iran or something.
I think I know who our Asshat of the Day is today.
*crosses fingers* oh please oh please let it be me!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Demint’s overreaching pisses off some Republicans. The Senate is funny that way.
Process arguments are only for political junkies. Drama gets ratings. Democrats need to learn to create drama. Democrats have tied themselves up with the Senate rules that won’t force the minority to actually “read from the phonebook.” I think Democrats could get good stuff done with Senate reform & a smaller majority IF they’re willing to get criticism from David Broder and the Republicans for changing the rules.
The minimum Senate reform I’d like to see:
– put the burden on the minority for filibuster – their members must all be present and debate means they have to talk
– get rid of unanimous consent to bring bills to floor, make those motions non-debatable
– “holds” are just filibuster threats, changing the first 2 will improve this problem
– change the rules for nominations & budgets. The government must keep running even if partisans are fighting.
a.price, Ever since Obomba was elected you have been attempting to ridicule Democrats like myself and delacrat and DV who have been speaking out against his incompetent and dishonest leadership of the Country and the Democratic party.
Now you say “the failure here is with the Dems and the Media for not taking the republicans to task. Americans by and large are too stupid and too lazy to realize what has been going on.”
Guess what? For the last 2 years you have been one of those Americans who has been “too stupid and too lazy to realize what has been going on.” Obomba has ceded his presidency to one Senator after another. Now President DeMint is only the latest.
Maybe you have finally woken up. I hope that you’re feeling better.
Some of us ridicule you not because we disagree with your premise, but because we disagree with your methods. Obama’s problem is weakness; your ridicule of him weakens him further. Belittling someone rarely gives him the confidence to do what you demand. Think about it.
Hate to sound like the Tea Party but none of the Senates “rules” are in the constitution, they are all of thier own creation and the intent is to marginalize the House and put the Senate in control. DeMint has essentially declared himself King of the Senate and by default controller of the Federal Government. The Senate has run wild and we seem powerless to stop it.
Exactly bamboozer. The filibuster is not in the Constitution and Senate rules have changed in the past. We need new rules for a new era.
For a very long time I believed that our Senators knew more about how things work than I did. I kept telling myself that Harry Reid wasn’t attending his first rodeo and there were reasons, deep Senatorial reasons, for what he was doing. But, it has finally become painfully clear to anybody who is paying attention that the Senate is simply dysfunctional. It no longer works. I don’t know where or when all these “rules” came into play but they were clearly designed to keep the Senate from accomplishing anything at all. If they worked in the private sector they’d be fired or at least have their pay docked. I’m starting to sympathize with the Tea Party. Enough is enough.
No, Geezer, Obomba came into office with massive amounts of political capital, goodwill and an energized progressive base. The progressives in this country, including me, would have gone to battle for him in a heartbeat to help him achieve the hope and change that he promised. He squandered it all by failing to lead, betraying his own promises, and lying. So we get the Senator du jour, like DeMint, stepping in to fill the power vacuum while Obomba and Biden and the rest of the White House are out scolding the progressive base for not clapping louder.
If anything, we did not speak out loud enough or early enough. We made the mistake of trusting what he said and believing that he could lead.
Maybe you might turn your attention to the stream of lies that have come out of his mouth rather than be so concerned with trying to ridicule and silence those of us on the left who point them out.
a1, i have ALWAYS criticized the congressional democrats for being wimps. I mock you and delcrat because you seem unable or unwilling to grasp the idea that the office of the president cannot impose it’s will on the congress. Even if they are the same party.
Im not sure where the posts are, maybe lost in DL archives somewhere, but i have FREQUENTLY blamed the Democratic senate leadership for not having a spine. President Obama is bound by the constitution and while he has called out the R’s games many times, it is countered with no support from Reid, and endless unified lies from the GOP and their personal propaganda channel. Aside from making your fear of a police state a REAL reality, what more to you suggest the president do? NOT Obama personally, but faced with that type of disloyal opposition from half the government and half the media, what can he do? That is why Obama still has my support. Despite that large group trying to stop anything at all from happening, he has still been able to pass legislation. I know you hate it and think it is worse than doing nothing, but drop the hyperbole for a minute and realize that it was either a watered down version, or absolutely nothing at all. The R’s would have run on “elect us and we will” such and such. and as soon as they got in power they would de regulate further, cut taxes on the rich, eliminate help for the poor, and bomb everyone. (yes i know, Obama is a hitler-esqu war criminal who sends his personal Drones to kill Pakistani children he thinks are ugly.)
It is FAR from perfect, but it is a complicated world and sometimes if you have a choice between perfect evil, and imperfect “not evil”, the choice should be obvious.
and im feeling much better. thanks for the concern. sinuses are a bitch..
“Maybe you might turn your attention to the stream of lies that have come out of his mouth rather than be so concerned with trying to ridicule and silence those of us on the left who point them out.”
lemmie put it to you this way.
I dont get along with my sister. we always fight, we have nothing in common, if we weren’t brother and sister we would not be friends. It’s sad but true. One time a kid on the playground pushed her down and made her cry. I beat the crap out of that kid.
The republicans are attacking one of us. While there are internal fights, the threat to progressives is coming from the right and if we spend all our time fighting each other and attacking our leaders for not being perfect and doing things we didn’t hear them say they would do, the next president will be Sarah Palin and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
My point is, let’s make sure the country’s future is safe enough before we can argue HOW progressive the direction should be. Because right now, we are poised for another Conservative revolution. and THIS time they will want retribution for the horrible 18 months of bitter oppression they suffered.
Anonone: I spend very little time ridiculing you. I merely observe that attacking someone is unlikely to change his behavior. You can stamp your feet all you want; it won’t change that element of human nature.
There may be a very good reason the Senate is the cancer on our gov’t. The corporatists only need to buy 41 of them to win. They are the bargain sell-outs in the federal government. Especially from small population states like Delaware, Alaska, Nevada, North Carolina, et al. You only have to look at the Tea Party strategy to identify where the obstruction is coming from. Cheap seats. Cheap votes. The Koch Brothers win, full stop. I am thoroughly disgusted today.
Comment by anon (for now) @ 11:27 am:
“The republicans are attacking one of us.”
Get a clue. Senator Obomba voted to fund the war-on-“terror” 5 times, voted for the telecom immunity bill after promising to fillibuster it. Now his FBI goons have raided progressive anti-war homes in several states, while he is pressing for greater government surveillance capabilities for the internet. Obomba is not and never was “one of us”.
“While there are internal fights, the threat to progressives is coming from the right and if we spend all our time fighting each other and attacking our leaders for not being perfect…”
Oh..Oh if “we” don’t co-operate with “the not perfect” , those evil republicans are gonna get us.
you can call it what you want. It is true.
Delacrat: It’s not about co-operating. It’s about influencing and convincing. Look at how much push-back you’ve gotten here, even from people who agree with you, for evidence that your approach is not working. It’s the flip side of the Tea Party and shares its priority: Anger over results that will bring about the desired change.
Maybe this is what we get for electing a Senator to be President.
Don’t we have any kick-ass Dem governors who want to be President?
GWB was an ass kicking governor.
I guess Howard Dean was our best shot.
When the difference between the republicans and democrats is in the few crumbs that the Democrats throw to the liberal base, there isn’t much to fight for. Yes, I’ll be out on election day doing GOTV for Coons (if it looks close) or for Sestek in PA (who really needs it), but am I happy about it? No.
We had the argument in 2008 on how progressive the country should be. We won. Only it turned out that the person who was championing those positions was lying and also turned out to be an incompetent anti-civil liberties President. That is the harsh reality.
The Obomba apologists who blame the Senate fail to recognize that Obomba is the political leader of the Democratic party and that he has utterly failed in that role. He left a huge political vacuum that the republicans have taken full advantage of.
Hence, we have President Lieberman, President McCain, President Snowe, President Nelson and on and on until we have President DeMint today.
Obama didn’t campaign on civil liberties. I too hoped he would reverse the damage, but I was just projecting my hopes onto him.
The public option and tax cuts for the rich, however, he will remain accountable for.
Look at how much push-back you’ve gotten here, even from people who agree with you, for evidence that your approach is not working.
And what approach is working, Geezer? The “shut your mouth so President DeMint can get back to work” approach? Or the “let’s talk about Xtine O’Donnell all day” approach?
Geezer,
So what is your approach to “influencing and convincing” Obomba that has worked so well?
Do you think rallying ’round someone who habitually stabs you in the back for 2+ years will convince him to change his ways?
Any intelligent child knows rewarding bad behavior just generates more, not less bad behavior.
He absolutely campaigned on civil liberties – and he has broken those promises massively:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/16/jon-stewart-on-obama.html
In his own words at the 1:25 mark.
By the way, if the Dems have the majority in the Senate next year with Biden as the Senate President, they can change the rules with 51 votes. Will they? What do you think?
All hail Czar DeMint!
Unfortunately, this tips the scale against O’Donnell. All the positivity that she can muster to proclaim herself a self made difference to the status quo, can be deminted by this one man (who supported her by the way).
Yeah we need to do more as American citizens to elect represenatives who blindly and ultra progressively erode the rights of the majority. Get back to work. Make some some bad laws. Oh yeah, and you can go ahead and give our corpo fascist fed govt the internet too. We need kill switches to defend our nuclear plants. Independent and alternative media, who cares? I’ve got cnn and fox 🙂
P.s. NWO, all I want is a job where I don’t work outside 60 hours a week. Just show me which pyramid to build.
The left wing nut job Dems run the insane asylum, why don’t they change the rules?
Nah, let’s complain and whine like all Dems do.