Yeah. This is kind of ridiculous.
A real filibuster, with actual debates and votes, would be a huge improvement over this shadowy, virtual filibuster shit. Moscow Mitch ran the Senate like a hot air balloon race with half the baskets empty. He’d falsely accuse Democrats of obstructing bills that he didn’t, in fact, ever even schedule a vote because he probably didn’t even have majority Republican support in many cases. But we’ll never know because someone asserted on Meet The Press that there weren’t 60 votes and then they never voted at all.
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It is a good point. There are almost certainly others. But Sens. Sinema and Manchin are viewed as the most difficult to get onboard with the idea. Any chain of events or strategy which would be sufficient to persuade them would probably also be enough to persuade, e.g., Sen. Jon Tester.
I think an under-discussed option is to try to simply “buy” Manchin, Sinema, and the rest off with big spending in their states.
I know that one should never believe anything Moscow Mitch says, but I also recall much tut-tutting in these comment threads when some folks here suggested Dems should threaten this action in response to the unprecedented circumstances of the Amy Covid Barrett approval clown show:
The dispute over the filibuster lingered Tuesday as McConnell warned Democrats that Republicans would counter any attempt to eliminate it with “immediate chaos” that would grind the chamber — and the Democratic governing agenda — to a halt.
Republicans, he said, would exercise their rights to object to routine business and demand frequent quorum calls — procedural feints that would grind business to a standstill and require senators and Vice President Harris to be on constant standby for roll-call votes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/26/mcconnell-scorched-earth-fillibuster/
This was the power of incumbency at work.
Bring back the speaking filibuster!
I’ve been saying that for years (you could look it up), but see this in NYT:
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Hi Joe, this is Chuck. I have a bill here I wanna bring for a vote, “The Rebuilding Appalachia Act of 2021”. It has $50 Billion in infrastructure spending for West Virginia over the next 10 years guaranteed. I got 47 Republicans who are gonna filibuster, so I guess we are screwed. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to be at the press conference I am giving tonight in Wheeling about how unfortunate this all is. Call me back."
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Exactly. McTurtle speaks and understands one language only: that of the arcane, detailed, often silly and outdated Senate rules and procedures. From 36+ years there he knows them inside out like (almost) nobody else. And he knows exactly how to bend them whenever necessary or convenient, and to bend others around them with his cunning, in order to stay in his little Kentucky-based power circle, remain in power and remain relevant. Supported of course by his wife Elaine Chao, the recently departed Transportation Secretary (and Labor Secretary under Bush), who has family ties to the billion dollar Chinese shipping industry feeding the US. That’s all he cares about. No democracy, no republic, no principles, no loyalties to anyone or anything beyond that. Anything else coming from him is just words, an ill-gotten means to this tragic, selfish end of his.
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Doug Jones, David Perdue and Cory Gardner were elected incumbents. They got beat.
Do you have even the slightest idea how rare that is?
You forgot Kelly Loeffler and Martha McSally --they were incumbents, too.
Jones lost to the ultimate good ole’ boy. The remaining four of these are examples of ETTD (or maybe in their cases, ETTTD, Everything That Touches Trump Dies).
Include or attach something to a voting rights bill that greatly benefits and is popular in Arizona and West Virginia and see if the filibuster holds.
I heard another approach to the issue which effectively neuters the filibuster without actually changing it. Pass everything under reconciliation. The issue here is the objection of the Parliamentarian if the Bill contains non-budgetary issues.
HOWEVER, the President of the Senate, Kamala Harris, can overrule the Parliamentarian on issue he/she brings up, (according to Lawrence O’Donnell), including the Byrd Rule, and the applicability of Reconciliation to any issue proposed under such a bill. The GOP would scream to high Heaven, but, as they say, elections have consequences.
This may be the “back-up plan” Chuck Schumer suggested to Rachel Maddow in her interview of him on Monday nite, with regard to GOP intransigence on Biden’s legislative agenda.
Good points, however the way the filibuster is configured, the onus is currently on the majority to show it has 60 votes. A suggestion would be to force the MINORITY to win at least 45 votes to filibuster any issue. That would result in a more democratic institution.
Like I said, bring back the speaking filibuster.