Posted on 03/16/2005 3:43:55 AM PST by Cincinatus
When Senate minority leader Harry Reid held an impromptu press conference on Tuesday, reporters were somewhat stunned by his pleading tone and urgent manner. Reid pleaded for Republican Senators not to resort to the so-called "nuclear option" in changing parliamentary rules that would cut the necessary confirmation vote for judges from 60 to a mere majority.
Reid essentially threatened to shut down the Senate if the parliamentary tactic were used.
Reid's urgency may be the result of a closed-door -- what some Republican staff called secret -- Senate Republican caucus luncheon on Tuesday afternoon.
Rumors were circulating in the Capitol's halls and on K Street that the subject of the luncheon was when and how the nuclear option would be used in the very near future.
Senior staff for Republicans Senators were mum about the specifics of the meeting, but one staffer said "pending business" was a part of the discussion, "and the confirmation judges is certainly pending business."
The Senate staffer added, "We're expecting this thing to come to a head, and it appears that the Democrats are finally getting the message."
In his remarks before reporters, Reid pleaded with Republicans to come back to the negotiating table to discuss ways around the nuclear option.
FYI..Im pinging you on a thread from last night..
We did...but he's gone....and he was a democrat.
Senator Zell Miller
The way around it is for the Dems to do the right thing & stop blocking anything Republican. They just don't "get it".
The major difference being that the dems (with only 45 senators) can't shut down the senate by themselves.
Hopefully Frist will call him on it.
McConnell is onboard with the option.
Senate Dems are abusing their responsibility to advise and consent. Without the filibuster, the Senate would aprove of Bush's noms. Bush should have recess appointed Bork, Star, and Ashcroft :)
My thoughts exactly....or along these lines, "So, are you feeling lucky, punk?"
There has to be a president with the attitude and strong will like Truman.
Bush=wishywashy. One never hears The President rail on congress. That's not the way it used to be.
If this keeps up, Pubs can lose big time. Either they take the lead or roll back to their country clubs and play the poor abused "no count" party - alias "wipping boys" (and girls).
Yeah, but we also remember what happened when Reagan shut down the operations of the US government. The point, of course, is that it "takes two to tango" - and if the government gets shut down it will be because Republicans and Democrats did not come to an accomodation. But it will be the Republicans whom the Democrats known as "objective" journalists will blame.
Reid essentially threatened to shut down the Senate if the parliamentary tactic were used.
Go ahead bigshot, shut down the Senate. Nobody else will notice.
Hopefully Frist will call him on it.
Frist doesn't have any lead in his pencil.
Going Nuclear?
Should be corrected and stated as:
"Going Constitutional!"
"Constitutional Option"
I don't got a problem with 'dat. You got a problem with 'dat?
No, you're not the only one, but all of you are wrong anyway.
The vote to confirm a judge is 50% plus one. Always has been, always will be.
The vote to call the question is 60 votes-which can be changed by changing the rules.
The vote to change the Senate rules is, by rule, 67%, and can be changed only with great difficulty.
This issue has been debated since the beginning of the Republic and has never been resolved. There is a great review of this subject HERE, scroll down to the article by Gold and Gupta. It's a great, though dense, read.
Every single argument that has been made here has been made by Senators long dead, of both parties. Many Vice Presidents, of both parties, have issued rulings from the chair on this very issue.
The bottom line is that 51 Senators CAN change the rules of the Senate, but that it is almost NEVER the case that there are 51 Senators who are willing to surrender power in that way.
Being a Senator MEANS being able to screw up the majority. A US Senator has more parliamentary power than any other parliamentarian, anywhere on Earth, because of this.
It requires a very, very strong majority to pull this off, because after it is done each one of the one hundred Senators, majority and minority, will have less power than they had before.
I'm sure if Frist had the votes, he would have done this already.
Harry Reid is not talking about shutting down the government. He is talking about shutting down the Senate. That is another matter altogether.
Shutting down the federal government means padlocking the Washington Monument and closing federal buildings in every major city and sending hundreds of thousands of federal employees home for a paid vacation. That is disruptive and wasteful.
"Shutting down the Senate" means that no legislation will be passed or appointments approved, and we will have to exist under the current law and appointments until such time as the Senate gets opened back up. Frankly, 99.99% of the population would never notice, if this were done quietly.
Well, the Nike Missile was a nuclear weapons platform...
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