Posted on 10/07/2011 6:32:03 AM PDT by IbJensen
Harry Reid just went there.
In a stunning parliamentary move, Reid invoked the infamous “nuclear option” this evening on the Senate floor to bar Republicans from getting votes on amendments without Reid’s permission. In short, he used a simple majority to do an end run around the rules of the Senate that make it the greatest deliberative body in the world.
Here is what is going on. Harry Reid brought a bill to the floor to impose protectionist sanctions on China. He didn’t want anyone to offer any amendments all week that were uncomfortable for his Democrat Senators, even though it is a key feature of the Senate to be able to force votes on any matter that a Senator deems important. In order to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on the President’s new stimulus plan, Reid used his ability as the Majority Leader to “fill the tree” by offering meaningless amendments that served only to block Republican amendments. Republicans figured out a way to get around him by offering procedural motions (instead of formal amendments) that would require 67 votes to pass but would secure the roll-call vote to get Democrats on the record.
The GOP manuever fit perfectly within the rules of the Senate. The Senate parliamentarian said so. Reid responded by having the Senate overturn the parliamentarian’s ruling. He won his appeal by a vote of 51 to 48 and thereby changed the rules of the Senate by simple majority. Senate rules are supposed to require 67 votes to be changed. This was the nuclear option long contemplated by Republicans in response to Democrats’ blockade of conservative judges, but was never used, in part because of what it would mean to the Senate’s future as a deliberative body. It was feared that it would ruin the filibuster.
Harry Reid pulled the trigger on a bill that had every chance of passing the Senate. Senate Republicans did not have the votes to stop it, so all that was in jeopardy was Harry Reid’s patience and his party’s comfort over having to take a tough vote.
The filibuster is still intact, but by invoking the nuclear option with regard to these Republican motions, Reid has established a precedent that will work to it’s long-term ruin. That is not a good thing for conservatives. I understand that many want the filibuster to go away when conservatives are in control and trying to pass important policy. But the filibuster is about securing a minority’s right to be heard. A government that allows the majority to trample the rights of a minority loses its legitimacy to govern. The majority isn’t always right, and the Senate has always been one of our nation’s most enduring checks against its tyranny.
The Senate as a deliberative body took a major hit tonight. And all because Harry Reid lost his cool and didn’t want to vote on his own President’s stimulus plan.
So much for the myth of “collegial seasoned wiser heads.”
For the life of me, I cannot understand how the people of NV can continue to reelect this jerk.
that headline says it all
Now, will the gentlemen of the GOP huff and puff and then meekly accept this thinking they can use it themselves in the future?
Nah, democrats will just change the rules, again
and the GOP will continue to look like obstructionist bad guys
The NRA endorsed him, or at least promoted him in their magazines,
because he brought taxpayer money to Nevada to build a gun range.
Some whores are cheaper than others, I guess.
...and the complicit media and their hunting dog obama will continue to lie through their teeth.
Maybe the Republicans should pull a Wisconsin Dem trick. Do not show up for the next Senate session so they don’t have a quorum. I wonder if that would work?
It didn’t... :>)
” - - - Harry Reid lost his cool and didn’t want to vote on his own President’s stimulus plan. - - -”
Wait a minute! Robo-Senator Reid is just doing his usual, sorry, job as the US Senate Demolition Leader!
What better way to destroy what is left of his leadership qualities than to behave as a pouting 4 year old? The “political trick” accusation was also a great bipartisan label to help demolish the US Senate.
BTW, I thought his knowing “what the American People want” was a really insightful thing to say. Wow! How does Nevada find such know-it-all men to run for the US Senate? Must be something in their water - - - .
It wasn’t just Harry Reid who lost his cool. Dems voted in near lockstep to overturn this rule. Two dissenters would have been sufficient to reject it.
Hey, Senators, leave the economy alone!
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a top Republican strategist in Texas after the pubbies took over the Texas legislature in 1998.
I asked him if the Republicans would gerrymander the state like the dims had done for generations when they held power.
He drawled, “We’re gonna be just as fair with the Democrats as they were with us”.
The dims should beware of precedents they set. They will not hold power forever.
Q: Why would Reid do this, knowing the Republicans will likely win the senate next year?
A: Many Dems aren’t excited to vote next year. By jeopardizing the filibuster Reid puts something on the table for them to care about - a possible Republican majority just got a whole lot scarier.
Both parties in the the House of Lords don't care, either. Each side will use the latest rule for its own benefit if and when it can.
This includes the GOP side if it ever comes out of Rip Van Winkle mode. Feeble, ineffectual protests, then back to sleep again.
Leni
"quorum - The number of Senators that must be present for the Senate to do business. The Constitution requires a majority of Senators (51) for a quorum." (www.senate.gov)
The Democrats have more than enough by themselves. The Wisconsin situation was slightly different, according to Wisconsin's rules.
They’re almost done with the economy. It’s a basket case and a study, as Japan’s collapse was, for future generations to ponder over well into the night by candlelight.
How did we end up with 10 RINO idiots in the Sentate, caving to give Harry the nuclear option for the next year and half?!?!?!??!
Shelby?
Chamblis?
“But the filibuster is about securing a minority’s right to be heard. A government that allows the majority to trample the rights of a minority loses its legitimacy to govern. The majority isn’t always right, and the Senate has always been one of our nation’s most enduring checks against its tyranny.”
This is the kind of romanticized BS that renders the Rs ineffective. “Minorities” in the Senate are heard during debate and through their votes. The filibuster is simply a way of allowing a minority to prevail on an issue. The Rs refused to do this on the assumption that the Ds would respect “the rules”. Anyone should have know that was naive. The Rs need to understand that you are not dealing with the “loyal opposition” when you deal with the Washington Ds; you are dealing with traitors and totalitarians and every tool available needs to be used to defeat them.
Unfortunately, the R leadership is a bunch of “kittens”.
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