Free Republic

It’s not often absolutely everything goes wrong. And by “everything” I mean everything. Imagine a day where you get fired, your spouse dumps you, you get food poisoning, all your accounts are hacked, your bank account drained, you get hit by a car, and your dog bites you. That would be a pretty bad day. That was Joe Biden’s week – absolutely everything that could go wrong, did. And it was glorious for America. It’s hard to overstate everything that happened last week – so much went wrong that you could easily forget some of it. It may well be...

Former Vice President Mike Pence made the case against Democrats' push to nix the legislative filibuster in order to pass sweeping voting legislation. In an op-ed published by The Washington Post Friday, Pence stated that both the Capitol riot that took place on Jan. 6, 2021 and the Democrats' attempt to change Senate rules amounted to a “power grab.” Democrats, including President Biden, have voiced their full-throated support to change the 60-vote filibuster in order to pass their voting legislation that they argue would bolster the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

What exactly would you say you do here? It’s the classic line from the film Office Space. That line should be directed at Joe Biden because the man is just a waste of space at this point. The only successful part of his trip to the Hill was that he didn’t trip going up the steps. Biden made one last-ditch effort to get support to tweak the filibuster rules to ram through the Democrat’s shoddy elections bill. It’s not about the integrity of our elections. The bill federalizes the races and makes sure the tilt is always to the Left....

Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to support keeping the Senate filibuster rule and thus preventing her party from passing a federal election overhaul bill sparked outrage from liberals who are accusing her of being racist. "I'm not kidding about @kyrstensinema - it's all about race," political consultant Tom Watson tweeted. "If you're wondering what the "Sinema secret" is, that's it. Black people. There's no real mystery here. Plain old bigot. Occam's razor. The mask is off." Watson added in another tweet that Sinema has chosen the side of "white supremacy" and that’s "what defines her now." Liberal professor Jeff Jarvis...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor on Thursday and delivered a speech that could be described as having a little something for everyone. There was, however, one little something that was much bigger than all the rest: her steadfast resolve about not getting rid of the filibuster. Knowing what the crux of this speech was going to mean for the future of the Republic, I really wanted to love it. Sinema is my senator, and so far has been an ongoing surprise for conservatives here in the Grand Canyon State. She seems to grasp the true purple...

Just under five years ago more than half of the Democrats currently in the Senate signed a letter defending the 60-vote filibuster on legislation – but now many of them are leading the charge to eliminate it as soon as this weekend. "Reality changed," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said when asked what is different in 2022 compared with 2017, when she was among the signers of the letter led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Chris Coons, D-Del. -------------- Sen. Mazie Hirono said "reality changed" between 2017 and 2022, which is why she now opposes the Senate filibuster. (AP Photo/Julio...

In a Wednesday memo to Democrats, Schumer promised to employ a process called “messages between the houses” to get both bills onto the Senate floor. If you’re asking yourself, “What are ‘messages between the houses?’” you aren’t alone. Rules wonk that I am, I’d never heard of this process. But here’s the short version: Before a bill can become a law, the House and Senate both have to agree on the wording of that bill. Most of us are familiar with the two chambers putting together a conference committee to hammer out the differences in language — though these have...

Sen. Tom Cotton on Wednesday delivered a brilliant speech defending the filibuster as Democrats plot to change Senate rules to pass voting legislation. What made his remarks so powerful? He used the top Senate Democrat’s own words. “Right now, we are on the precipice of a constitutional crisis. We are about to step into the abyss. I want to talk for a few minutes why we are on that precipice and why we are looking into that abyss,” Cotton said Wednesday, quoting Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. In fact, the rest of the Arkansas Republican’s speech was a reading of...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Thursday that she will not vote to weaken the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold, bucking her party leaders yet again and dealing a major blow to Democrats' election reform effort. The comments, which match Sinema's long-held stance on the filibuster, are effectively the final nail in the coffin of Democrats' longshot effort to pass two elections bills over unified Senate GOP opposition. "There's no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal...

There’s a sense of panic setting in among Congressional Democrats in the wake of resident Joe Biden’s inflammatory speech about passing the two currently pending bills allegedly aimed at securing “voting rights.” Over at The Hill, the pair of measures were described last night as being “on the brink of defeat.” But like a magician who remains confident that he still has a couple more rabbits stuffed in his hat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is cooking up a new plan to try to advance the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Unable to attract...

Former President Obama is throwing his support behind President Biden’s push to change the filibuster for voting rights legislation. Obama, in a Wednesday opinion piece for USA Today, said the filibuster is “the only thing standing in the way” of Congress passing federal voting rights reform.

Just heard on ABC radio. Democrats planning a Trojan Horse to pass the Voting Rights legislation by avoiding filibuster procedures. As best as I can explain it, Ds plan to remove a provision from an unrelated piece of legislation (NASA related, iirc) and insert voting rights legislation. The radio report said if the legislation originated in the Senate, the 60 vote threshold was unneeded and could presumably move to the house.

At a speech in Georgia yesterday, President Biden charged all U.S. Senators with deciding “where they stand, not just for the moment, but for the ages.” The Senate filibuster, which Biden defended passionately in 2005 and again last year, is now apparently a neo-segregationist atrocity because it stands in the way of the president’s legislative agenda. Biden wants federal power to veto election laws in certain states, because he is on the right side of history. Of course this means if you oppose him, you are on the wrong side. “At consequential moments in history, they present a choice,” he...

Stacey has a plan, and it’s only a surprise to people who haven’t paid attention. She plans to become the first Black woman governor in the United States next year. And then run for president in 2024 if Biden does not, or in 2028 if he does.” — Newsweek, November 2021 The quote comes from "an adviser who asked not to be identified to speak freely about her thinking." Fast-forward to Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Abrams's home turf of Georgia to push their "voting rights" legislation, which is already on life support. Democrats...

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is warning Democrats might try to change the filibuster rules to advance voting rights legislation, a video from over a decade ago shows the New York senator warning against eliminating the procedural hurdle. On Monday, the Nathan Brand, the Republican National Committee’s deputy communications director, 2005 video surfaced of Schumer warning against eliminating the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome and advance legislation. “The ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the Founding Fathers called the ‘cooling saucer of democracy’ into the rubber-stamp of dictatorship. We will not let them,”...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday threatened to essentially shut down a "post-nuclear Senate" as Democrats speed toward a potential vote on altering the Senate's 60-vote filibuster in the next week. "I think it's appropriate to ask: What would the Senate look like in a post-nuclear world?" McConnell said, referring to the "nuclear option" of creating a new Senate precedent with just 50 votes needed to allow passage of legislation.

resident Barack Obama argued in defense of the filibuster on the Senate floor in 2005 despite now referring to the Senate tactic as a “Jim Crow relic” in a comment that resident Joe Biden echoed on Thursday. "If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse," then-Sen. Obama stated in 2005, a clip of which has gone viral on social media this week. Obama argued that ending the filibuster would "change the rules in...

Senate Republicans are threatening they will attempt a takeover of the Senate agenda by forcing votes on issues ranging from the Keystone XL pipeline to abortion rules to a U.S-Mexico border wall if Democrats weaken the filibuster. Republicans are also looking at smaller bills such as a proposal to prohibit the administration from imposing a fracking ban by executive order, a prohibition on the IRS implementing new reporting on banks to disclose individuals’ banking activity and mandatory detention for illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes.

Democrats are dusting off a familiar strategy to advance key pieces of President Joe Biden's agenda through the evenly divided Senate over Republican objections. In doing so, they hope to pressure Republicans to finally support their effort to take up the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And Democrats' past success employing the strategy to compel Republicans to cooperate with them suggests that their plan could work again this time.Republicans have twice prevented the Senate from taking up the voting rights bill by filibustering it. The bill's supporters have called for changing the Senate rules to prevent a minority...

Sen. Joe Manchin is taking heat from all sides as he resists eliminating the last stalwart against the Democratic agenda, the filibuster, including some of the biggest names in America. Manchin has told colleagues his phone has been lighting up with calls in recent days, including from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Though two former presidents and every Democrat in the Senate couldn't budge the West Virginia senator, even TV host Oprah Winfrey phoned in to try to convince him to agree to filibuster reform, according to Politico. Moderate Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Angus...