In a move that’s as overdue as it is unexpected, every returning Senate Democrat has signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid calling for filibuster reform.
The letter is not specific on what sort of reform they’d like to see, but the basic outline looks to take its cues from Sen. Jeff Merkley’s proposal: Filibusters would require continuous debate on the floor of the Senate, and they would only be allowed once the bill is on the floor (no more filibustering the motion to debate a bill, for instance). Democrats would also like to see the dead time between calling for a vote to break a filibuster and actually taking the vote reduced.
Almost in time for them to actually use with bills passed by their majority in the House. Almost. Will this letter change democracy, or can attempts to change filibuster rules be filibustered themselves? [WP]
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Senators, Senators
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain't what you ain't
So listen up busters, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood
Signed, Dear Harry
John Prine for Senate parliamentarian!
Straight majority changes rules (including filibuster rules), but it has to be done at beginning of the session.
The first step in filibuster reform should be a requirement that you actually have to stand up there and speak for hours and days instead of just saying "we're gonna filibuster" and having that be it. Make the obstructionists really look like obstructionists and it'll get better.
Did you read the whole excerpt? That's part of it; "Filibusters would require continuous debate on the floor of the Senate".
How the hell did he get all of those thumbs for that one? There is such thing as a dumb question when the answers right in the already very short original posting.
Commenting without reading the linked article: well, okay.
Commening without reading through the post: fer Jeebus' sake!
they should be forced to stand up and speak for hours with their pants down, showing their fat asses. that will limit the obstruction… just picture this picture!
yeah, result of alcohol poisoning my febrile brain cells today.
Harry Reid slaps his bitch Angle up and all of a sudden he's got a bit of spine.
And it looks good on him.
When you have SEIU thugs backing you up, you can grow one.
If they had not rigged voting machines,neither he nor patty Murray would be back
You couldn't thought of this in 2008? Then we could have had a bigger, better stimulus and therefore a less shitty economy by now, and less of your colleagues would have been sent back home this year.
We also could have better health reform, all the shit you guys just passed long ago, oh and we might actually have done something about that global warming that's happening and causing wild weather all over the world as we speak (well, type).
It has always been my assumption that Democrats would kill the filibuster the day before the GOP assumes a 51 vote majority in the Senate. And the GOP would re-instate the filibuster a few years later the day before they lose their majority.
Just as I have always assumed that I will never see a dime of the social security I've been paying in all these years. Sure the Republicans haven't managed to kill it yet, but that makes it no less inevitable.
It was Democrat LBJ that first raided the SS "lockbox" and every Congress since has raided deeper, BOTH parties are to blame
However, if you look at the original SS bill, it was never intended to pay much out. It was solely intended as another tax on the public, then they started using it as a political tool.
SS is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, that if you or I was to conduct on the public, would land us in jail. Bernie Madoff is a prime example
Mitch McConnell withdrew his legs and head into his shell when he heard the news.
Quick, roll him on his back!
This would also be a fine opportunity to give the Voight-Kampff test to all members of the Senate.
From turtle soup to nuts.
And yes, we're looking at you, Turtle Dick.
Gee – if they aren't careful, they might upset the comity of the Senate. Or the comedy perhaps.
It will have to be stand-up comity from now on.
Ex President of the Senate Dick "go-fuck-yourself" Cheney i s particularly concerned about this issue
Democrat Signing Sternly-Worded Letter = Republican Skullfucking the Constitution
Just love this balance of power in Amerika
I keep hearing that Democrats will never change the filibuster rules because it would hurt them as bad as the Republicans once they lose the majority. But Democrats don't use filibustering as a flagrantly obstructionist tactic on every major piece of legislation, so that doesn't make sense.
Truly, until this last two years, even the Republicans have never filibustered every medium piece of legislation, and held every bloody appointment. The 2007-8 term was the previous worst, but it was nowhere near as comprehensively obnoxious.
Yeah, I never understood that line of thinking, either. It would only hurt the Dems if they were a cohesive party that tried to roll whichever president is in power. This is not the Dems, and I don't forsee it being them any time soon. They have shown over a very long time now that they are perfectly content with going along to get along, and mostly because the party has actual, real wings unlike the GOP which has become uniformly insane all the way through.
To me, this is just common sense. It's not really even partisan insomuch as one party abused it so much that it needed changing back to what it once was.
Obvs their corporate masters don't want Bernie Saunders fucking with anything Boner sends them.
About time. Bring back the real filibuster you wimps.
Perfectly typical of the Senate Democrats. They wait until their 59 to 41 majority (including Lieberman) is about to be cut to 53 to 47 (still including fucknuts Lieberman), having spent two years letting the GOP run all over them. Then they attempt to make being the majority party mean something.
Hell, they missed it in January of 2009, and the only other time is next month. Better late than never at all. That this is on their radar, right now, is pretty amazing to me. That they are on the cusp of actually changing the rules is a miracle in itself.
They can't; but they could have back when this congress started, in early 2009.
1. True.
2. But it would have had to happen at the very opening of Congress, even before the Inauguration. It's hard to remember after two years of Mitch McFuckturtle filibustering bathroom breaks, but nobody anticipated this really unprecedented level of obstruction. Even past Refucklicans had never been close to so fucked up. I don't think anybody properly foresaw the magnituse of the evil reaction to the whole negro-in-the-White-House thing.
3. On January 3, 2009, Obama (and the Dems) had been swept into a commanding national position — but without a clear filibuster-proof supermajority — partly by "centrist"-"independents" who responded to the bipartisanship part of "Change". If the first act of the Senate majority had been to lower the filibuster bar, I think a lot of those folks would have been WTF? before the Inaugeral balls.
As it has played out, it probably wouldn't have mattered much, but at the time there was a lot of concern among the Dem leadership to appear responsible and "statesmanlike", and even in retrospect I understand the decision.
The only possible downside I can see is that this will force yobs like Yertle McTurtle, Walnuts, and Lindsey Grabaman to get up and pontificate on the Senate floor for hours on end and never actually end up accomplishing anything. Oh, wait.
Again, the Dims strike just in the nick of too fucking late.
Ooooo! Strongly worded letters always lead to changes vs. the GOP.
I presume Manchin didn't sign because he had a Secret Santa thing previously scheduled?
This just in: Sen. John Kyl has announced that it is an affront to all Christians for the Democrats to sign such a letter this close to one of the two most holy days on the calendar.
I predict the deeply religious John Kyl will be going STRAIGHT to hell when his time on this mortal coil is done. I also like the Lions getting 3 at Miami Sunday. That is all,
I've seen pics from the Taiwanese and South Korean parliaments which look like they have that. Certainly it would boost CSPAN's ratings.
Somebody needs to tell him it's not Christian to play with a blow-up doll on Christmas either. That's the kind of woman Kyl favors — one that can't talk back.
That's a great idea. I really like the sound of "Senatorial scrumbags."
The next order of business needs to be reform of the Senatorial Hold procedures. In order to place a hold on a bill or nomination, the senator should have to appear on the Senate floor dressed only in a thong and Crocs, and drink a half gallon of Mountain Dew before declaring their prerogative to block action. The hold would remain in effect as long as the senator remains in place, standing on one foot, and would expire when the senator urinates, or excuses him/herself to do so.
David Vitter would be cool with that.
… and drink a half gallon on GoLytely before declaring their prerogative to block action. /fixed
I expect a new definition of their precious nukular option, too.
Rules don't apply to reid or Pelosi,
Rule are for the little people like us- now shut up and do as your told
Cry moar.
not crying, just sating a fact- the elites don't have to live by the rules they expect us to. Or else they too would be on Social Security, Obamacare, etc.
If you notice, it is both parties guilty, but Peosi, Obama and Reid have taken it to a new level
Not doing something you like is not the same thing as not following the rules. Since you claimed you were merely stating a fact, it would have been nice to have used a fact for an example as opposed to your opinion.
Which rules have Reid and Pelosi broken exactly? Otherwise, this is merely some more impotent crying a few days after a thread died.
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