This is Strom Thurmond, father of a child by a Black servant, and also the guy who holds the record for keeping the Senate floor in an attempt to filibuster away the civil rights bill being considered in the Senate. People who aren’t as old as I am might not remember what a “filibuster” is actually supposed to be, since for years now all someone had to do in the Senate was say “no,” and the matter up for consideration couldn’t even be brought to the floor without a 60 vote majority overriding the coward sitting in his (or her, but usually his) seat whispering “no.” In days gone by, if you were a Senator and you wanted to stop legislation, you could do it, but you had to take to the Senate floor and actually talk about it. You could get voted down (cloture) by a supermajority of your colleagues, but if all they could muster was a simple majority, you could stall legislation forever. All you had to be willing to do was stand up, take the floor, and let the whole country see you. Imagine, if the old filibuster rules had been in place, what it would have looked like when the jobs bill for our Veterans came to the Senate. Do you really think that cowards like Beauregard Sessions would have been willing to stand on the floor, with television cameras running, and publicly stand against helping out those Troops! they all claim to Support! so much?
The obstructionist stupidity of “Mooch” McConnell made some kind of a harsh remedy for Rushpubliscum obstruction a certainty. They would have gotten it in the last session, but Mooch promised Harry Reid he would only use the filibuster “responsibly,” which apparently meant “whenever I feel like I can make the President look bad.” Reid, of course, is stupid for believing a liar like Mooch, but he appears to have wised up considerably. It is excellent that the filibuster, in its original form, will be restored in the next session of Congress. Let these punk tools stand up before all of America and block bills for our economy, our health, and our veterans. Let everyone see them. Then, let them, at long last, actually have to defend what they’re doing to the American people. I don’t worry about this getting turned around on the dems later: the dems normally filibuster for reasons that most Americans would sympathize with. The Rushpubliscums know this, of course, so expect to hear a lot of butthurt complaints come January, when they can’t do their coward thing anymore when obstructing legislation. It doesn’t matter. This is another nail in the coffin of the party of the racists, the religious bigots, the haters of the working people, and the stump-dumb. America always benefits when the activities of the Legislature get the light shined on them.
This is a good move (if they actually make it) not only for allowing legislation to get a vote, but also for presidential appointments to get a vote. It doesn’t stop holds, but maybe the honorables will see fit to reform that abused privilege as well.
The original intent of the filibuster was subverted when the rules were changed. We have seen the damage done by this, and many other bad legislative rule changes. The filibuster is a useful tool for reputable legislators to make a point that needs to be made and to demostrate the strength of their convictions.
It should always be an open process that forces the legislator to stand up before all. The return to the old rules will be a very good move.
Only two people I can think of I have seen do an actual filibuster are Jimmy Stewart and that was in a movie and Bernie Sanders a couple years ago. He was righteous on the floor of the senate. I can’t remember what he was speaking of now, but knowing Bernie it had something to do with income inequality.
I agree, this filibuster change will hurt Republicans and will help Democrats whenever they become the minority party. When Democrats have filibustered, it’s usually been for a cause most Americans agree with (preventing oil drilling in ANWR for example). I can’t imagine any of these Republican cowards having the balls to stand there for hours and hours trying to stop a jobs bill.
Back many years ago, a Senator actually had the balls to filibuster by reading the entire content of the bill under debate. In classic DC fashion, the bill was thousands of pages of nonsense and pork. It took days and days before the opposition caved. The bill was defeated. I will try and find the Senator. It’s a great story.
I remember Metzenbaum reading from the DC phone book. That was classic, funny stuff.
Comments are closed.