I thought I heard on TV this AM that the Senate had voted to suspend the rules. That’s another parliamentary way around the filibuster/cloture rule maybe?
I understand why the Senate is reluctant to change the 60 vote rule. It truly is better to have more than a bare majority agree to things, when trying to manage the herding of cats.
But the turtle needs to do whatever it takes to deliver.
Yes, I agree. What worked in the 50’s with collegiality in the Senate can cost lives now. Courtesy and issue margins are dead. Just get the job done.
McConnell is all swamp, lives in yesterday, and not nearly so serious about ISIS coming up, or Russia dropping anchor in South America, drugs and weapons cartels, child trafficking, all coming in across our southern border.
McConnell worships the Senate, using the nuclear option only a nomination out to the SC.
Ironic what is deemed most important to virtue signal over, to those of the Swamp. Never mind what’s happening on the ground in real time death, kids, crime and traffic.
I’m gonna go look it up - but my question on the rule is When did the 60 votes become the requirement. I’ve been surprised to find that the rules change often so they aren’t sacred cows in most cases. Though I think there are some that have been in place since the first few congresses that should remain respected.
Found it
prior “ In 1917, during World War I, a rule allowing cloture of a debate was adopted by the Senate on a 76-3 roll call vote[15] at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson,”
From 1917 to 1949, the requirement for cloture was two-thirds of senators voting.
In 1949, the Senate made invoking cloture more difficult by requiring two-thirds of the entire Senate membership to vote in favor of a cloture motion
In 1959, anticipating more civil rights legislation, the Senate under the leadership of Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson restored the cloture threshold to two-thirds of those voting.[21]
After a series of filibusters in the 1960s over civil rights legislation, the Senate put a “two-track system” into place in 1970
In 1975, the Senate revised its cloture rule so that three-fifths of sworn senators (60 votes out of 100) could limit debate, except for changing Senate rules which still requires a two-thirds majority of those present and voting to invoke cloture