CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
July 7, 2009 – 2:11 p.m.
Leaders Urge Senate Democrats To Unite Against Filibusters
Senate Democratic leaders are asking their rank and file to maintain party unity on procedural votes now that Democrats have secured a 60-vote operating majority that can end filibusters. But they already face some resistance.
Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., said Tuesday that the message to the caucus — particularly to more than a dozen moderate Democrats — was: “Don’t let the Republicans filibuster us into failure. We want to succeed, and to succeed, we need to stick together.
Tuesday’s seating of Minnesota’s Al Franken gives Democrats 58 senators plus two independents who caucus with them — their largest majority in three decades.
Durbin said Democratic leaders are trying to harness that power to thwart GOP filibusters.
“If they will stick with us on the procedural votes, we at least know that we can move forward,” he said of his Democratic colleagues. “They may vote against final passage on a bill, they may vote with Republicans on an amendment. That’s entirely their right to do. But this idea of allowing the filibuster to stop the whole Senate. ... We ought to control our own agenda.”
However, the leaders are unlikely to be able to muster 60 votes from their own ranks alone. Both Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass., and Robert C. Byrd , D-W.Va., have been absent much of the year battling illness.
Moderate Democrats, who have expressed concern about aspects of the health care and climate change measures taking shape in committees, may not agree to the leadership’s request in any event.
Evan Bayh , a moderate from Indiana, said he would not be inclined to vote to cut off a filibuster on a bill if he opposed the substance of the underlying measure, and he predicted his colleagues would feel the same way.
“Most senators aren’t sheep,” he said. “They don’t just go blindly along without thinking about things, and I don’t think we want them to do that.”
Comments
Dear God, the woman was a broadcast journalism major and it took her, what 6-7 years to graduate. Bringing up the Woodrow Wilson experience level was ridiculous. Nothing else to write about?
["Most senators aren't sheep," he said. "They don't just go blindly along without thinking about things, and I don't think we want them to do that."] Yours is not to reason why, yours is but to have faith in the Messiah. Evidently Sens. Bayh & Co need to go back to re-education camp. Dommkopf!
Senators aren't sheep? Tell that to the health insurance and health care industries. Their sheepdog lobbyists seem to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the senators penned up away from their constituents who do want healthcare that is focused on the patient, not the insurance profiteers.
NObama (really clever name, BTW), This has nothing to do with a Messiah and everything to do with not letting a disgraced minority stop the agenda of the elected majority. Bayh and others are free to vote "no", to try to convince others to vote "no", to amend, to lobby. To help the GOP obstruct, however, should come with a price. Bayh and other Democrats who vote to not allow a vote should face the same type of penalties that the GOP leadership would have exacted on a Republican Senator helping the Dems block its aganda prior to 2007.
Bayh's attitude is reprehensible. If he doesn't agree with a bill, then he can vote against it. Joining in a filibuster just because you don't agree with a bill is being anti-democratic (lower-case "d") and a jerk. The filibuster is an important tool for the minority party, but it should only be used sparingly. For a member of the majority party to use it is bizarre. Take a vote, and majority rules. That's democracy. Filibusters were used exceedingly sparingly throughout most of the history of the US (the most common use was by segregationists to block civil rights legislation). But when Clinton was elected, suddenly it became the norm for Republicans to filibuster every bill they didn't vote for. That's a complete abuse of the system.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: