So, I guess the Senate is going have some kind of informal meeting in a few minutes to discuss why the Republicans are so annoying and what the Democrats can do about it. Or, as most people are reporting it, some Republicans will try to broker a deal with Harry Reid to preserve the use of the filibuster for executive branch nominees. Whatever happens, I probably won’t like it.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
So, Reid is Charlie Brown and Yurtle the Turtle is Lucy? Calling Captain Renault!!
My cynicism has reached new all-time highs lately. I agree. If Harry Reid is threatening some big deal, it’ll be a stinker and we’ll be pissed.
Just do it, barking dogs don’t bite.
I continue to have faith in the Republicans’ continued insistence to not just be unreasonable, but be annoyingly so. Unfortunately, I also have faith in Democrats willingness to cut horrible deals for themselves and the country. The pathetic stalemate between these two ignoble forces will loom large in our 4C future.
Unfortunately, nobody is looking right now, which means a deal could possibly get done. Right now I’m close to rooting for failure of the process.
Harry Reid is playing his Lucy role very well. The football just got jerked away. He didn’t have the votes; it was only a bluff, I guess.
And McConnell announces that the nationalized issue for 2014 will be Obamacare, which has been hobbled any way that the GOP consultants could think of.
Did you see the letter the unions sent blasting the employer mandate delay?
OT, but Booman, please go and find the trasncript from the juror in the Zimmerman trial and tell me again how “the jury got it right”???
I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel after hearing this woman.
I’m getting the heck of the internet
/music/It was capitulation I know
and it should have ended right there where it started
just strip the cloture vote
and let the world take note
that the Senate will take a vote
and the GOP would go home broken-hearted
but nope
it was capitulation again
Don’t have a link but I read when Harry first proposed this that McConnell was raising money on it for his 2014 senate run. The GOP loves to play victim to a big mean Democrat and the Fox News watchers buy it.
And isn’t Nate Silver saying the GOP will win a majority in the Senate in 2014? That may be on Reid’s mind. I sure don’t want to think of what could happen with GOP in charge of both House and Senate.
The change I would like is whoever filibusters to have to stand there and talk the whole time just like Wendy Davis did in Texas. I think that’s the only way people would start to see WHO is filibustering and why. In Texas she had to be relevant, too. No reading phone books. No bathroom, no leaning on anything. I would love to see that happen.
I think the GOP would soon lose an audience as it became clear how much they were obstructing. Most voters just don’t know.
If I thought the senate could pass good legislation then I would be for a majority vote, but they don’t get any good legislation from the House. That’s why I’d prefer talking for every single filibuster.
I’m not sure I’m right on this, but …
So based on this I would use the nuclear option to the greatest degree possible, make hay while the sun shines and get some decent appointees in, and then let the GOP increase the pace of their march to extinction between ’14 and ’16. They can’t possibly win the WH and we can’t win the House until 2020 and the next census, so the only thing that really matters until then is who has control of more key state houses when the census data hits and the next gerrymandering orgy begins. The more power the GOP has to abuse between now and then, the better our chances are of a backlash against them at the state level. To us, they jumped the shark years ago, but it will have to get much worse before it finally sinks in with the double-digit IQ folks who keep the House in GOP hands. Let them ban abortion in the red states. Let the pre-schoolers carry semi-automatics. Let them do their thing – like Bush did – until they undeniably disprove all of their talking points.
When the GOP was in control of the Senate and Dubya was pushing appointments, exactly how many times did the Democrats use the filibuster to stop those appointments?
There is little downside for Reid nuking the filibuster. There is little downside for McConnell, if the GOP controls the Senate, to preserve or even slightly strengthen the filibuster.