Obama's Democrats threaten to end filibusters in Senate
Source: Reuters
Obama's Democrats threaten to end filibusters in Senate
Source: Reuters - Tue, 9 Jul 2013 05:50 PM
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, frustrated by a dysfunctional and unpopular Congress that has been unable to perform basic tasks such as agreeing on a federal budget, may soon seek an unprecedented rules change in the Senate.
The Nevada Democrat's aim would be to strip Republicans of their ability to stop President Barack Obama's judicial and executive branch nominees with procedural roadblocks known as filibusters, which also have been used to halt much of the president's legislative agenda.
Republicans charge that such a move would effectively turn the 100-member Senate into the House of Representatives where the rules already allow the chamber's majority to virtually ignore the minority.
"I'm worried, very worried," said veteran Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. "There has been wrong on both sides, but this could destroy the Senate."
Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20130709175005-l651e/?source=search
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vinny9698
(1,016 posts)And you full well know it. When the minority can obstruct for their ideals, even when the populace has a 90% support for gun control, then a change is needed and required to have a functional Senate.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)The Senate has acted fairly broken for some time.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)since the dems took over. When the pukes ran the show, they got shit passed (and shit it was) while minority leader Reid said he couldn't stop it, even though the pukes didn't have a filibuster-proof majority. Those republicans are just so mean. Now the dems are the majority and cannot do squat. I would say Reid is a pathetic piece of shit, but he is really doing the bidding of his masters- he is complicit.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)Your my first "ignore".
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)polichick
(37,152 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)AndyA
(16,993 posts)Surely Harry Reid isn't threatening again to change the Senate rules. He's been making that threat for how long now? Two years? Longer? Every few months, he puffs himself up, makes some stern remarks on the Senate floor, then...nothing.
Really, Harry? Again? Still? Quit talking about it and just do it already. People are sick of the threats, and we're sick of nothing getting done. Deal with it. Fix it. DO. YOUR. JOB. (For a change).
groundloop
(11,522 posts)And of course it's pointless, Harry won't do squat.
AAO
(3,300 posts)TrollBuster9090
(5,955 posts)Five minutes after Turtleface becomes the new Majority Leader in the Senate, we'll be back to the traditional talking filibuster, I have no doubt about that. It's only the slack-assed, country club Democrats in the Senate who don't realize this.
totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)I'll believe it when I see it.
Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)That if they do it, then it can be used against them in the future.
TrollBuster9090
(5,955 posts)Republicans will hesitate to reform the filibuster rules next time they've got the Senate majority is a complete idiot. (And by 'complete idiot' I'm obviously referring to the Senate Democrats who don't support filibuster reform on the grounds that it'll allow THEM to prevent the GOP from implementing their radical agenda next time they're in the majority.)
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)Republican's side. They can't gerrymander Senate seats like they do House seats. In the unlikely event the Republicans gain a majority in the Senate they know they will likely never hold it for long. The trend is for more blue states not more red states. The filibuster is all they have in the Senate.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Republicans don't believe they are in trouble because of their policies or demographics, they just think they need to express themselves better. And at the state level keep all those undeserving un'Murican people from voting.
If they get the Senate, and Democrats attempt a filibuster, the Republicans will be the victims. They will shriek and stomp their feet and claim that we started it when we hit them back. And they will change the rules whenever it suits them. Remember the stories during the Bush years of them turning off the lights when Democrats were trying to hold hearings they didn't like? Or just the other day when they twisted the rules to break Wendy Davis' filibuster in Texas? And all the new voter ID laws to allegedly prevent something that doesn't exist? It's what they do.
The liberal / progressive / Democratic side of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body needs to wake TFU, stop worrying about what might happen next election and instead focus on what's happening (or not happening) right now.
Which, in my judgment, would be the best way to prevent the Republicans from taking the Senate next year.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)Is that it assumes (wrongly, IMO) that if Republicans gained control in the Senate, they wouldn't make getting rid of the filibuster one of their first acts.
totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)as the party gets crazier and crazier it wouldn't surprise me if they try it next time if they get the chance.
Volaris
(10,274 posts)If they actually did the business of WE THE PEOPLE, the "future" would be a good long while off.
And yes, it WILL happen eventually anyway, but if they are so afraid of having it used against them in the future, they are cowards and don't deserve to be there in the first fuckin' place, let alone have any more power to do the bidding of thier corporate masters (see fucking the rest of us over).
Just my 2 cents. Harry won't do it, we've heard this wolf story before.
tblue
(16,350 posts)Reid is worse than useless. Don't get me started about the last time he said he was going to. He is.....no, I am not gonna cuss. Can we start a petition to REPLACE HARRY REID
Renew Deal
(81,871 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)The Senate is part of a separate and co-equal branch of the government.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)OregonBlue
(7,754 posts)CanonRay
(14,113 posts)In the end, Harry Reid won't do shit. You heard it here. Please Harry, make me eat my words.
BornLooser
(106 posts)BlueNAlabama
(27 posts)Do you honestly expect Harry Reid will have the nerve? I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
Wake up people. Real Democrats are as extinct as Goldwater Republicans.
As I see it, we have one party, The Money Party. Just change the blue "D" and the red "R" to blue and red dollar signs respectively.
Our "leaders" will always obey their corporate owners.
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)Yes we have few real Democrats any more. Look at the tea party, for it's size you could still say it set the tone for the direction the country was heading. The Progressive caucus is larger than the tea party caucus. Why are they so toothless? Why couldn't they at least see how the tea party bent things their way? Why didn't they emulate them?
And welcome to DU BlueNAlabama.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)phleshdef
(11,936 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)They were known as Senators that stood with the President when he took the high ground.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Kinda changes the tone of the statement.
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)It's just an old-timey politick thing of identifying those who are loyal to the President.
That's all it is.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)C'mon, Hog...this is easy. The former is a compliment, the latter absolutely isn't.
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)but John McCain is "worried," OMG back off.
ashling
(25,771 posts)Last edited Wed Jul 10, 2013, 04:04 PM - Edit history (1)
You party has already destroyed the senate, you pompous old windbag!
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)believe this headline only when it happens. bullshit.
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)Fucking do it or shut the fuck up.
As for Gramps McCain, tough shit, asshole. You're part of the problem.
progressoid
(49,999 posts)I won't hold my breath
TrollBuster9090
(5,955 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)We've had the football pulled from in front of us continuously and keep thinking it won't happen again.
It's come to a point where on the changing the filibuster, I'd actually bet against my own party on it happening.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)who would love to parade themselves around as martyrs.
Just DO IT. Also write it so that ending it is automatic whenever a party filibusters more than 30 bills and appointments and during times of national disaster like natural disasters and war.
In other words, make the nuclear option temporary and only going into force when a bunch of obstructionists refuse to do their jobs.
pinto
(106,886 posts)lastlib
(23,286 posts)it needs to be bolded, italicized, and printed in a 64-point font.
Wake me up WHEN it happens......................
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)gawd, you're gullible. Just like they need you to be
pinto
(106,886 posts)and doesn't assume it is or will be a done deal. *If* done, it would break up the Repub log jam on nominations for a start.
rateyes
(17,438 posts)it won't be done. He is a worthless fuck when it comes to leading the Senate.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)JUST DO IT!
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)So might not be the best political move.
frylock
(34,825 posts)really.
apnu
(8,758 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I am really sick of the leaders of our own party lying every day. This is how parties become irrelevant - Obama, Reid, and the rest of the "leadership" get absolutely nothing done.
Spirochete
(5,264 posts)please tell us you're NOT going to jump off a freeway overpass...
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I bet you will do something this time. I am holding my breath. Really, I am, Chicken Little.
East Coast Pirate
(775 posts)Android3.14
(5,402 posts)whatever.
Lil Missy
(17,865 posts)Yeah! She really does!
Rstrstx
(1,399 posts)Ditch the Hastert rule in the House and the filibuster will go back to the way it used to be, where a member of the opposition would have to stand and talk for hours on end. That would put an end to the filibuster abuse, which should be reserved for extreme measures only and not piss ant day to day stuff. It'd also let the House start moving again, it should give Boehner some political cover for those who threaten to dethrone him if he breaks the Hastert rule. I really wish we could be done with the obstructionism but it's coming from both houses of Congress and right now the repubs have no reason to ditch Hastert. So perhaps a threat is in order.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)You can do this Harry.
K&R
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)Reid has proven he's not going to change a damn thing.
He's proven this over and over.
Think up something new, Harry.
This dead horse is really harried.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)I'm with Reid on this one. McCain is a douche and a liar to boot.
Time to get things moving again and get Obama's appointees confirmed. ALL of them.
truthisfreedom
(23,155 posts)Even if a lot of DU members think you're weak-kneed.
LumosMaxima
(585 posts)It's utterly absurd to claim that ending filibusters would "destroy" the Senate. It makes no more sense than the claims that "Obama is trying to destroy the country!" (And I've actually heard people say that in real life, as if any politician ever set out to destroy his own country.)
I can't imagine looking at the world in apocalyptic terms and seeing every little thing as the beginning of the end.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)That ship has sailed.