Posted on 07/18/2012 4:39:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
He might be bluffing or playing to the MSNBC audience, but don't be so sure. He's already changed Senate rules on the fly to deny Republicans the opportunity to force uncomfortable votes and exploded Senate precedent on the amendment process within the last few years. Next up: Legislative filibuster Hiroshima?
In May, Harry Reid apologized for killing off a 2010 filibuster reform bill, admitting that the legislative procedure has been “abused, abused, and abused.” Reid has now gone a step farther: the Senate Majority Leader is now openly promising to pass filibuster reform in the beginning of the next Congress if Democrats manage to hold onto a simple majority in the Senate and if Obama is reelected. Reid made the remarks on Friday to MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, a day after Democrats were unable to overcome the GOP threat of a filibuster on a small-business tax-cut bill, which failed on a 53-44 vote:
REID: They’re just trying to kill this bill, as they’ve killed scores of other bills we’ve had because they’re filibustering. They’re filibustering until we have to change the rules. We can’t go on like this anymore. I don’t want to get rid of the filibuster, but I have to tell you, I want to change the rules and make the filibuster meaningful. The filibuster is not part of our constitution, it came about as a result of our wanting to get legislation passed, and now it’s being used to stop legislation from passing.
SCHULTZ: But you’d change the rules…
REID: Oh, we could have done it in the last Congress. But I got on the Senate floor and said that I made a mistake and I should have helped with that. It can be done if Obama is re-elected, and I can still do it if I have a majority, we can do it with a simple majority at the beginning of the next Congress.
SCHULTZ: Think the President will go along with that?
REID: You damn betcha.
Republicans have launched an unprecedented number of filibusters because Reid has used unprecedented tactics to block them from forcing tough votes or even offering amendments to legislation. (See: "filling the tree.") The only recourse for an otherwise powerless Senate minority, therefore, is to block cloture. This gridlock is a byproduct both of Reid's dreadful leadership and of the American people's will, which sent 63 new House members and seven new Republican Senators in 2010 explicitly to obstruct the Democrats' extreme agenda. Also, notice how Reid talks tough about nuking the filibuster only "if Democrats manage to hold onto a simple majority in the Senate and if Obama is reelected." Wait, so majority leader Reid wouldn't blow up decades of Senate comity and precedent under a President Romney? How very curious! I wonder why he'd suddenly rewind his jeremiad against long-established minority rights in that case. I'll leave you with this classic clip of pretty much every single Democrat Senator (including you-know-who) railing against the "tyranny" of the so-called nuclear option when Republicans were considering a form of it in 2005:
Obama and Democrats on Reconciliation/Nuclear Option 2005
Keep in mind that this was all in response to a limited anti-filibuster maneuver (ultimately averted by the Gang of 14), which would have required a simple majority only for judicial appointments. After all, Article II of the Constitution says that the president "shall appoint" members of the judiciary, with merely the"advice and consent" of the Senate. James Madison had argued that a super-majority should be required to block such an appointment. The most relevant quote in the montage comes from California's Diane Feinstein:
"It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be executive appointments. And then, legislation."
Democrats vociferously objected to the judicial nuclear option a few years ago because it could open the door to the unthinkable: Doing away with the sacrosanct legislative filibuster. If Democrats win, Reid is promising to skip straight to that ultimate detonation.
The Democrats are destroying our Gopvernment folks: It’s as simple as that.
They are doing it deliberately in a Power move that has as it’s goal the destruction of our Constitutional form f Government.
Real Patriots may have to fight. Prepare for it.
Good point
Nuke Harry first!
I hope the Republicans give the Democrats a taste of their own medicine. That is the only way to stop this nonsense. But knowing the Republicans they’ll cave....
That’s exactly what they should do.
Give ‘em some of their own medicine.
Run the SOBs out of the country.
Not to worry. We’re on deck to pick up around 10 or more seats in the Senate.
Then we cannot allow you to win, Harry.
Repiblicans need to keep the house, take back the senate, nuke the filibuster than sic the law on every RAT ba$t@rd that has ruined the country.
Also, bring in the Feds and take down Chicago. Everyone, Obama included.
Don’t worry “Dingy Harry”...you won’t win. Your party will be reeling from a defeat of epic proportions.
Count on it.
I heard on radio, I think Rush, say he truly thinks something is wrong with Reid.
He wasn’t being nasty either.
I am more concerned about Obama simply ripping up the Constitution and ending all free elections.
I guess Republicans can do unto Democrats as Democrats are doing to them. With Romney as president, a Republican House and Republican Senate, Democrats won’t have anything but their media and the Supreme Court. America might get a reprieve.
It is time to ‘nuke’ Reid, Feinstein, and the whole leftist bunch...this election gives us that opportunity...get these evil pieces of leftist shit out of having any control of government.
We need to elect as many good conservatives as we can to both houses of Congress...it is especially important for the Senate...so that they can elect a majority leader consistant with the rest of this...McConnell has to go.
In the house we need enough to replace Bonehead with a conservative as Speaker of the House. We accomplish these things and other things will begin to fall into place.
Gpa has spoken :)
“I am more concerned about Obama simply ripping up the Constitution and ending all free elections.”
That would be one horrendous mistake on the part of the Bummer. He would have to answer to ‘We the People’...
There is something truly disturbing about Reid. I can’t quite place it...does he have some freaky fetish...or is it something even sicker? Whatever it is, Reid comes across as one really weird dude. The kind that if he approached you on the street you’d reach for your pepper spray (or something stronger if you’re licensed to carry).
Anyone else get that sinister vibe from that whispering little geek?
The end of the filibuster would be a further erosion of the traditions that restrain political power in this nation. It would be harmful in the long run. On the other hand, if we need to do it to kill Obama-doesnt-care--then we may have to swallow that poison.
Thanks again Nevada GOP for nominating Sharon Angle!
The nation could have been rid of this disgrace if not for that disastrous pick.
How do you think I feel. The IL GOP nominated Alan Keyes to run against Obama. Frigging idiots....
I get that vibe from just about all Emocrats.
...and we have a real shot of doing just that.
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