âWe are mindful of the unique role the Senate plays in the legislative process, and we are steadfastly committed to ensuring that this great American institution continues to serve as the worldâs greatest deliberative body,â
Give me a fucking break, peddle this chauvanistic fantasy to someone whoâs gullible enough to believe it â Chris Cillizza or Chris Matthews would be a good first choice.
I call horseshit. The Republicans will drop the legislative filibuster as soon as it becomes convenient for them. And theyâll blame it on gridlock and intransigence by Democrats.
Yes, in the interests of comity, and the great tradition of bipartisan blah blah blah etc. and so on, they should keep the legislative filibuster in place.
Until such time as the Democrats are in control again, and then fuck 'em.
PuhleeezeâŚthat train has left the station. It seems they always support the 60-vote rule except when they donât. FilibustersâŚat least the form used by Republicans to great effectâŚare now history. If you voted for cloture and allowed Gorsuch to be confirmed with 51 votes, Iâm sorry, as my mother would say, youâve made your bed, now sleep in it. Such hypocrisy is hard to fathom.
Oooooo - they signed a âletter!â Too late now, you chickenshits. Our SCOTUS is fucked for 30 years thanks to you cowardly assholes. Donât even start talking about the worldâs greatest deliberative body and blah blah blah. Youâre useless pimples on the ass of history.
Itâs easy enough for Rs to be for the legislative filibuster. They want the power to ram judges they want onto the courts, but they donât actually want to be able to pass legislation. Their judges have done plenty of things they like in the past twenty years, but the Rs didnât do much with the legislative trifecta last time they had it. Their goal is to hobble the federal govt, and itâs much safer to let Federalist Society ideologues on the courts dismantle the govt than take responsibility for killing it themselves.
If youâre a âmoderateâ Senate R, you do have this further problem, that idiots in your own party in the House might screw the pooch and actually pass legislation to do what is better left to the courts. That makes the legislative veto not just harmless to your side if youâre an R, it makes it a positive good. You can still vote for legislation that you know to be stupid because if you donât youâll be primaried by the crazies in your party, but you are rescued from the consequences of the stupid legislation itself by Ds who will filibuster the thing.
Whatever non-disreputable function the filibuster might have played in one or two examples you can cite from history, it serves no other basic function except as a way to dodge responsibility. For a long stretch it was the way the D majority avoided their responsibility to end Jim Crow. Since we handed the segregationist franchise over to the Rs, it has consistently been against us. No D should have signed this letter. All Ds should be for ending the filibuster, period.
The horse is out of the barn.
Side -bar
âDonald Trump personally profited from missile-maker Raytheonâs stock jump after his Syria attackâ
Between 1955 and 1961, when Lyndon Johnson was Senate Marjority Leader, the Republicans filibustered two bills.
Between 2009 and 2015, when Harry Reid was Senate Majority Leader, the Republicans filibustered 419 bills.
I donât think for a minute that Mitch McConnell will accept that sort of obstruction from the Democrats, assuming that theyâre even up to offering it.
I think that when thereâs a bill on the table that the Republicans really want to pass, theyâll nuke the filibuster for good.
Sometimes⌠thereâs a smell that ya justâŚcanât âŚget out âŚ
Thy name is McConnell â
What the hell was even the purpose of this ridiculous letter? So the âmoderate Republicansâ can feel better about themselves while they take another brick out of the wall from the fabric of American government?
Why the hell would Dems even sign on to such a meaningless POS?
They just finished stealing your G-damn SCOTUS seatâŚact like you fân care!
Legislative filibuster helpful to avoid needing to in an up/down vote have to decide if some really bad bill that got approval of the Freedom Caucus etc. should be law.
Judges and appointees different. Senate has special duty there so hard to pass the buck and/or resist opposition from their radical base. And, overall, they donât really care about appointments probably & if a few stray senators doesnât like one, can block them with Democratic support.
Bottom line, Gorsuch was basic Senate duty on the line and the Susan Collins of the Senate FAILED. Iâm sick and tired of certain liberal sorts [who on some things are sane] woefully commenting on how Democrats made a mistake since they might be able to rely on these people [later on]. Susan Collins et. al. knew what blocking Garland and a few years back three judges in the DC Circuit etc. would lead to. Didnât give a shit.
If this isnât the most disingenuous,ineffective,constituent non friendly bunch of fucking poseur in Congressional history, I donât want to know who is âŚdisgraceful manipulating poseurs.
WHY!? This letter is just pandering to the masses and a mea culpa! You assholes will just change the rules to suit the majority no matter which party is in control. We just became governed by a parliament. It wonât be long before students will be learning to speak in tongues as a language. And handling snakes as an after school elective. If they have the stupidity to promote âclean coalâ, they will do anything stupid.
So much hand washingâŚI hope they donât slip on the wet marble.
And the reality is, even so-called moderate Republicans will go along with their party when (not if) they do away with the legislative filibuster. Then come out with mealy mouthed platitudes that they felt it more necessary to stand with their party instead of the nation (or worse, state that the Democrats âforcedâ them to do it).
No, they wonât. They do not want to be backed into a corner where theyâre forced to pass, or vote down, every batshit idea that comes to the mind of the Freedom Caucus and that Paul Ryan is too chickenshit to kill. And now with PP in office and ready to sign anything, theyâre even less likely to do it. Republican senators know good and damn well that if half the stuff they propose ever became law, their asses would be run up out of Washington on a rail. Theyâre evil, not stupid. Although many are both.
Wouldnât it be great to âchange the rulesâ to elect President Clinton with âa simple majority voteâ?
And eliminate the âobstructionismâ, âtyranny of the minorityâ, and âarcane rulesâ of the Electoral College?
Talk about a ânuclear optionââŚ
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Iâd like to believe that youâre right, but when you look at the things that theyâve gone out of their way try to pass, they just might be that crazy and willing to weather any of the literal shitstorm that would ensue afterwards.
I could easily see them get rid of it to completely dismantle the ACA, to wipe out Medicare and Medicaid, and completely privatize SS. This is one of the biggest reasons I expect them to go back on their words as soon as itâs viable. They just donât care about the fallout, and when you see how well theyâve been doing in the past, I can see why they donât care.