Posted on 02/10/2007 11:53:35 AM PST by RWR8189
What prompted Senate majority leader Harry Reid to think he could outmaneuver Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell on which Iraq war resolutions would be voted on is anybody's guess. Reid never had a chance, and he lost badly. The media played the story as a simple case of Republicans, led by McConnell, blocking a debate on the Iraq war that was certain to be dominated by war critics. But that's not what happened--not even close.
Republicans were, in fact, ready for the ballyhooed week of debate that would include votes on two resolutions. Democrats would get a vote on their anti-President Bush, antiwar resolution. McConnell insisted Republicans be given a vote on the resolution of their choice. That resolution, authored by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, promised to continue the funding of troops in Iraq.
Reid and Democrats panicked at the thought of having to vote for or against this measure, which didn't express an opinion on Bush's "surge" of 21,500 more troops in Iraq or on the war itself. Voting for the Gregg resolution would make it more difficult for Democrats to cut off funding later. They'd look like flip-floppers. But if they voted against it, they could be accused of not supporting the troops. So Reid refused to allow a vote on the Gregg resolution. McConnell responded by mounting a Republican filibuster Democrats couldn't overcome. And the Senate was prevented from proceeding with its planned week of debate on the Iraq war.
That Republicans won this encounter should have been clear to everyone. A poisonous debate on Iraq, attracting massive press coverage that was bound to be unfavorable to Bush and his war plans, was averted. Democrats were denied the headline they craved, "Senate Rebuffs Bush on Iraq." And Republicans sent a message that they wouldn't be pushed around by Reid and the Democrats. A more succinct way of putting all this is that McConnell won and Reid lost.
"Our goal was not to kill the Iraq resolutions," McConnell says. "Our goal was to have the debate, but in a manner that was fair to both sides." To McConnell, fairness meant Reid could not impose his will on Republicans and determine which of their resolutions would be voted on. (For the Republican resolution, Reid favored the one authored by Senator John McCain that defended President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq but set rigid benchmarks the Iraqi government must meet.) As it turned out, Reid clumsily overreached. Without much trouble, McConnell collected enough Republican votes, plus Democratic senator Joe Lieberman's, to block Reid's gambit.
On Iraq and every other issue, the struggle in the closely divided Senate comes down to this: McConnell understands the situation and knows how to deal with it far better than Reid does. Republicans are the minority, 49 to 51, but the minority has advantages in the Senate. "The Senate is built for defense," McConnell says. "The House is built for offense."
The key tool in the hands of the Senate minority is the filibuster, which allows unlimited debate if 41 senators reject cloture, which shuts off debate after 30 hours. "If you have 41, you can dictate the process," McConnell says. "If you don't have 41, you get rolled." McConnell intends to keep Republicans from being rolled. So far, he and Republicans have defeated all four Democratic efforts to halt debate.
"There are two things you can do with 41 or more dissenters," according to McConnell. You can block a bill or a resolution or you can "shape" it. In the Iraq debate, McConnell wanted to shape the outcome, not bar a vote on resolutions. He and Republican senators had come up with five separate resolutions. But the cleverly drafted Gregg resolution stood out. It said, "Congress should not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds."
"That created a unique dilemma," says McConnell. Because Democrats were wary of voting against the Gregg resolution, it was likely to gain more votes than the antiwar, anti-surge resolution. Indeed, it was expected to get more than the 60 votes required for passage. Thus it might overshadow the Democratic resolution. Under the circumstances, Reid and Democrats decided no resolution and no debate would be preferable to allowing this one to pass.
Even so, Reid was not spared the embarrassment of being asked by Gregg, on the Senate floor, if he would vote for "my resolution." Reid dodged the issue. "I don't think I have to make that judgment now," he said. "Because the judgment, I say to my friend from New Hampshire, is not some diversionary matter. The issue before this body and the issue before the American people--that's why we're getting hundreds of phone calls in my office and other Senate offices around the country--the issue is, Does the Senate support the president's surge?"
McConnell, after a dozen years of Republican rule in the Senate, has schooled Republicans on how to operate effectively as a minority. He recruited Martin Gold, an expert on minority rights in the Senate, to advise senators and their staff. The filibuster that stopped the Iraq debate, Gold says, "was a very early and very important test of whether the McConnell minority would stand up for itself or whether it would fracture." It showed Republicans would "not be railroaded."
They weren't railroaded when a bill boosting the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour reached the Senate floor in January. Democrats wanted a "clean" bill with only the wage hike. Republicans wanted tax cuts for small businesses that would be affected by the higher wage. Reid tried twice to halt debate and failed. So tax relief was added to the minimum wage bill. Republicans also used the filibuster to have a say on congressional ethics reform. McConnell mustered 46 votes to block the shutoff of the ethics debate.
McConnell wants a role in shaping the House-passed energy bill too, once it reaches the Senate. But he is bent on killing the legislation, already approved by the House, that would have the federal government negotiate drug prices in the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. "We're going to kill that proudly," he says. "It won't be a question of shaping."
The filibuster, even in the hands of as skilled a Senate leader as McConnell, has its limits. For instance, it won't help Republicans win confirmation of federal appeals courts nominees. "There's no easy way to extract nominees from committee," he says. The last three presidents got on average 17 appeals court nominees approved in their final two years, while facing a Senate ruled by the opposite party, McConnell says. To be fair, Democrats should allow at least that number to be confirmed now, he argues.
McConnell's first major venture in exploiting minority rights in the Senate came in 1994 when Democrats still had a majority. A campaign finance reform bill that would have imposed public financing on congressional races had passed both houses of Congress. McConnell consulted Senate secretary Elizabeth Letchworth to find out if there were any options left to block the legislation.
Letchworth told him three motions must be passed before conferees can be dispatched to iron out differences between the Senate and House bills. But of course nobody had ever filibustered those motions before, and she recommended against breaking new ground. That didn't stop McConnell. He succeeded in blocking the second motion. The bill died. Six weeks later, Republicans captured the Senate and House in the 1994 landslide.
Now, in the minority once more, McConnell is prepared to filibuster conferees again. He's wary of what might happen in a Senate-House conference on the minimum wage increase. The House passed a hike with no tax relief, and he doesn't want the Senate conferees to go along with that.
"We'll have to have a discussion of what might come out" of the conference, McConnell says. "That will be a lengthy and interesting discussion." In all likelihood, McConnell will get his way.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
Go, CA!
right on the nose in my book.
Reid is a crybaby thief who is now running scared, which could'nt happen to a better person.
That someone couldn't possibly be the Democrats. They only how how to be a majority with the media running interference for them 24/7/365.
I am very encouraged by McConnell, who knows how to use the rules.
What's he going to do on the immigration bill when Bush and the Democrats attempt to ram that through. Where does he stand?
A true statement. The GOP sucks at circling the wagons. They will be hunting him viciously for having a backbone. It also shows us that, while we had some traitors in the ranks, we cant blame the last Senate for stuff that didnt get accomplished.
Thanks for the ping!
Apologies if this has been noticed upthread...but it was the House Republicans that "ruled" for a dozen years. The Senate was "majoritied" by the R's for only four. Granted, they did have the Senate as a result of the 2000 election, but when Jeffords jumped, it made the Dims the majority party (and Tom Dasshole the SML). Other than that, spot on article.
And to it, I'll add that I'd hope at least one Republican, when they hear the caterwauling of "obstructionism", that they would put up a two prong posterboard. One side says "JUDGES". The other side has the name of a judge that was appointed by President Bush, had majority support coming out of committee, would have had a confirmation if the vote were allowed, and NEVER REACHED THE VOTE because Dingy Soiled D**pers Harry and his caucus didn't allow a vote. Go through them, one by one...including Henry Saad, the one that Dingy said would have been defeated anyway, due to what was in his FBI file (in which Dingy Soiled should not have looked).
Payback's a (witch - rhymes with), ain't it, Democrats?
I think it's more important to be able to stop the stampedse of socialism that'll be coming out of the House. If it gets to Bush, he'll sign it...he's not going to fight the dem's. McConnell will and I'm grateful for that.
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