Keyword: filibusters
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted Wednesday that he doesn’t support the controversial idea of changing Senate rules to kill Democratic filibusters, and instead indicated that this move might be seen as an overreach by Republicans. When Democrats ran the Senate, they changed the rules to allow for simple majority votes for judicial nominees, but not Supreme Court nominees, which can still be filibustered. But despite speculation that Republicans will take this next step, McConnell indicated some resistance to it when asked. He said “overreaching after an election, generally speaking, is a mistake.” And when pressed on McConnell’s approach to...
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US President Barack Obama has supported a motion passed by Senate Democrats which weakens Republicans' ability to block White House nominations. The measure, known as the "nuclear option", curbs the power of the upper chamber's minority party to use a blocking tactic known as a filibuster. Mr Obama said the practice had gone too far, and was "not normal". Republicans vowed they would use the new rule against Democrats if they won back the Senate in the next election. Correspondents said Thursday's motion, which passed 52-48, will make American politics even more acrimonious. 'Power grab' At the White House on...
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Congress: Changing the filibuster rule come January has suddenly become a top priority for Senate Democrats who want to help their re-elected president complete his fundamental transformation of America. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday blasted Democratic-led efforts to reform the filibuster, something the Democrats once vehemently opposed but which Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to bring up in the next Congress, fearing the Republicans will dig in to block President Obama's agenda. What Reid and the Democrats will come up with is unknown at this point. Among the options is to ban filibusters that block the start of...
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he will try to push through a change to Senate rules that would limit the GOP’s ability to filibuster bills. Speaking in the wake of Tuesday’s election, which boosted Senate Democrats’ numbers slightly, Mr. Reid said he won’t end filibusters altogether but that the rules need to change so that the minority party cannot use the legislative blocking tool as often. “I think that the rules have been abused and that we’re going to work to change them,” he told reporters. “Were not going to do away with the filibuster but we’re...
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he will try to push through a change to Senate rules that would limit the GOP’s ability to filibuster bills. Speaking in the wake of Tuesday’s election, which boosted Senate Democrats’ numbers slightly, Mr. Reid said he won’t end filibusters altogether but that the rules need to change so that the minority party cannot use the legislative blocking tool as often. “I think that the rules have been abused and that we’re going to work to change them,” he told reporters. “Were not going to do away with the filibuster but we’re...
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In a shock development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely-used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules. The surprise move stunned Republicans, who did not expect Reid to bring heavy artillery to what had appeared to have been a hum-drum legislative knife fight. Reid appealed a ruling from the chair that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does not need consent to force a vote on a motion to suspend the rules to consider an amendment after cloture has already been approved. The maneuver is highly arcane but momentous. If...
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WASHINGTON – Senate leaders said Thursday they have agreed that minority Republicans would filibuster fewer bills and nominations in exchange for a promise by the Democratic majority to give them more chances to offer amendments. The gentleman's agreement announced by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell was part of a package of measures to make the Senate a more workable and less contentious place. It also included support of a resolution, to be voted on later in the day, to end the practice of one senator being able to secretly block votes and a rules change that...
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Their majority dwindling, some Senate Democrats are planning a showdown on the first day of the new Congress over limiting Republicans' ability to hold up legislation through filibusters. "We don't want to give the minority the ability to block the majority from governing," Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a leading proponent of filibuster reform, told ABC News. According to Udall, momentum is building behind his effort to amend Senate Rule XXII, which allows 3/5ths of the Senate -- or 60 members -- to invoke "cloture" and end debate. Failure to clear that 60-vote hurdle leaves a bill on the table, effectively...
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It's good to see the modern Left still maintains the intellectual dexterity it exhibited when it hewed to the ever-changing Stalinist party line in the 1930s. On MSNBC's The Ed Show, Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel took the bold position that Senate Democrats must "bust the filibuster," ending the right of the minority party to stall important legislation -- a position totally at odds with that of...Katrina vanden Heuvel. Katrina told Ed: We need the president to take a stand that is bold, honest, courageous, clear, forceful, unequivocal, to tell those senators on the Democratic side they have...
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Sorry for the vanity, but I have been curious about this. If a health-care plan goes down in flames before the entire senate or is filibustered, can they keep bringing it back again and again in various forms? I'm sure I won't like the answer.
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And not on confirmations, either, but on legislation. Peter Orszag, Barack Obama’s budget director, says the White House won’t take off the table an option to push through its legislative agenda using the “reconciliation” process. It would keep Republicans from stopping bills on taxes, budgets, and global warming: The White House budget director said Tuesday that the Obama administration may take advantage of a rarely used congressional rule that would strip Republicans of their filibuster power to get some controversial proposals through the Senate by simple majorities. Peter Orszag told reporters that the White House would prefer not to use...
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"Once the tool of Southern segregationists, unending debate has become as acceptable as it is undemocratic."
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Pity poor Harry Reid. Was anyone ever as inept with rhetoric forced into a position of national leadership? The same man who called George Bush a “loser” and Alan Greenspan a “hack” — the same man who tried surrendering to al-Qaeda from the Senate floor — has now compared Senate cloture motions to aggravated assaults by stabbing: Reid and Democrats have pointed to the 72 cloture motions — which cut off debate and require 60 votes — as “filibusters.” Republicans say these are not true filibusters, since many of the motions pass overwhelmingly.Nonetheless, Reid says Republican contentions that they’ve only...
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The book by Wittes has lots of other interesting stuff in it. He urges that the President and Chief Justice team up in order to put an end to nominees testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I don't feel very strongly one way or the other on that question. The most objectionable aspect of such testimony is when Senators seek to extract concessions, promises, or predictions about how a nominee will rule in future cases. If the courts continue to throw off the shackles and logic of the Constitution, and instead act as super-legislators, then it would make some sense...
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On Tuesday, the GOP primary in Rhode Island pits Sen. Lincoln Chafee against Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey. Whatever else may be said about Chafee, he has been a very reliable vote against obstructionist filibusters of judicial nominees. He's voted for cloture all 25 times (see details below the fold). According to Rasmussen, Chafee has pulled to within two points of Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in his bid for re-election (i.e. 44% for Whitehouse and 42% for Chafee). Whitehouse previously had a six point lead. But Chafee must first face off against Laffey, on Tuesday. Rasmussen has Whitehouse leading Laffey 58%...
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"Is it asking too much that the President’s nominees for lifetime appointments to the federal courts at least get the support of 60 of 100 senators?" - Sen. Joe Lieberman on ABC’s This Week, on Sunday, May 22, 2005 "These last-minute efforts using procedural maneuvers ... has been the wrong way of going about it." - Sen. Barack Obama on ABC’s This Week, on Sunday, Jan 29, 2006 Senate Democrats just can’t understand why Republicans object to judicial filibusters requiring 60 votes to approve President Bush’s nominees. They have controlled the Senate for so many decades they find it impossible...
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We are prepared to release one or two flyers the day or two after President Bush announces his Supreme Court nominee. If you would like to be added to our ping list for flyer distribution, please let us know. Here is the list of flyers distributed by you and others to 10,000s of homes during 2004. Flyers
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Opponents of President Bush have said they will use every tool in their arsenal, including the filibuster and other stalling tactics, to block any Supreme Court nominee who does not meet certain litmus tests. Eighty nine days from today, on October 3rd, the Supreme Court is scheduled to start the 2005- 2006 term. The three months between now and then is plenty of time for the U.S. Senate to debate and vote on a candidate once the President makes a nomination. If the Senate truly has respect for both the law and for tradition it should work through the summer...
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If there’s one Republican I see a benefit for after the filibuster compromise, it is George Allen. Allen has spoken forcefully on the issue, and beat Frist to the punch in calling for a vote on filibusters sooner rather than later. Though Allen was not seen as one of the major players on this issue, he has also been an unusually strong advocate for confirming John Bolton without delay. There is a growing sentiment from Beltway Buzz readers and many in the conservative movement that Allen is showing more leadership qualities in the Senate than the actual Majority Leader. Like...
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