Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Sunday said that he stood by his opposition to eliminating the filibuster entirely — but he left the door open to reforming the procedural rule.
Absolutely, positively, 100% YES!
Geez Joe I think you could have phrased that better, thanks for giving Republican more ammunition in regards to changing the filibuster.
Of course, with 50 GOP senators, a speaking filibuster could go on for a long, long time if there were no way to end it.
So, if Manchin and Sinema don’t want to end it entirely, let the rule be that for every 10 hours of debate the number of votes needed to end the debate drops by one. At the end of 100 only 51 votes would be needed.
Since this would consume 100 hours of legislative time, the Democrats could only use it two or three times a session, which in this case would be HR 1 (election reform), the George Floyd policing act, and climate change.
If I never hear this greasy-headed asshole’s name again, it will be too soon.
I strongly support the 40 votes required to maintain a filibuster. That requires an active, accountable action on the minority as a whole to block legislation. This would make it much harder for them to block popular legislation. I want it apparent who is blocking the legislation and I want them to have to work at it to contiinue blocking it.
Not if coherent, fact-based statements were required…
Couple hours, tops…
Could go on indefinitely, sure. But won’t.
Just like Johnson couldn’t even stay awake to hear the end of the clerks reading the bill, people would get bored and fuck it up if there wasn’t enough interest in maintaining it.
And the longer it goes, the more media attention it would get. Which is a good thing. If it’s a filibuster people support, it would increase the support. If it’s some shady Republican shit, would put pressure on them to stop it.
Saw this in comments at Political Wire:
Related:
Clyburn: Allowing filibuster to be used to deny voting rights would be ‘catastrophic’**
“There’s no way under the sun that in 2021 that we are going to allow the filibuster to be used to deny voting rights. That just ain’t gonna happen. That would be catastrophic,” Clyburn told The Guardian in an interview published Sunday, just days after the House voted largely along party lines to pass The For The People Act, also known as H.R. 1.
While Clyburn clarified that he is not “going to say that you must get rid of the filibuster,” he said the party “would do well to develop a Manchin-Sinema rule on getting around the filibuster as it relates to race and civil rights.”
I see this as a big step forward from Manchin, and an indication that he will get behind a Voting Rights Act.
As I said before, if he torpedoed Neera Tanden to give himself space for this, I would grudgingly accept that trade off.
I understand what Manchin is saying, but his phrasing is painful.
He’s only a US Senator.
He continues to believe his Republican colleagues are persuadable They are not but he opened the door to fixing the filibuster, this is progress.
I think saying he’s “saving” the filibuster in order to dramatically change it, in actuality, is brilliant phrasing -for the DC media as well as those folk who don’t pay attention to politics past the headlines. It’ll probably play really well in West Virginia.
“But I’m not willing to take away the involvement of the minority.”
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t each senator of the minority party still get a vote?
What’s painful about it?
“Make him stand there and talk,” Manchin said.
Ted Cruz, wiping drool from his chin: “I really like the way this guy thinks.”
You’re right, of course. When he says “involvement of the minority” he’s talking about its power to block certain things that the majority party wants to do.
Would you support this when Democrats are in the minority?
OT: How in the world did this guy get a top secret clearance? I’m actually a bit stunned at the extent of his rap sheet.
If they’re going to mindlessly oppose, to a person, everything the majority tries to do, then this is the half a loaf. If we can’t metaphorically nuke that antidemocratic crap like the enemy capital it is, we can have battleships offshore pumping in those 16-inch shells until the rubble jumps. Make 'em stand up there making spectacles of themselves because they want to tax poor people’s oxygen or whatever it is. Works for me. Nice compromise, Joe, that’s the stuff. Might make a Democrat out of you yet.