{"id":232954,"date":"2010-01-26T17:51:56","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T22:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/all-out-attack-left-filibuster-38639\/"},"modified":"2010-01-26T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T22:51:56","slug":"all-out-attack-by-the-left-on-the-filibuster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/232954","title":{"rendered":"All Out Attack By The Left On The Filibuster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>On 01.26.10 11:50 AM posted by Brian Darling<\/p>\n<p>Liberals in America are mad because they *have had a difficult time implementing an unpopular far left agenda, especially  with regard to Obamacare.*One of the results of this rage is for liberals to  attack one of the rules in the Senate that protects unlimited debate and  amendment \u0096 the Filibuster Rule.<\/p>\n<p>Rule 22 of the Senate\u0092s rules governs the  conduct of a filibuster and requires that a \u0093Cloture Petition\u0094 be signed by 16  Senators to commence the process of shutting off debate on a nomination or  legislation. The left wants to get rid of this rule because they  don\u0092t like the fact that the rule requires a vote of 60 members to  shut off debate.* They are mad because they can\u0092t get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/Research\/Labor\/wm2334.cfm\" >Card Check<\/a> and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/Research\/HealthCare\/bg2311.cfm\" >Public  Option<\/a> passed in the Senate, even when they had a 60 vote Democrat Caucus, so  they are going to change the rules of the game to make it easier to pass big  government legislation.* The effect of abolition of the filibuster would be to  marginalize moderate Democrats in the Senate and eliminate the need for any  input from Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>The Constitution states in Article I, Section 5 that  \u0093each house may determine the rule of its proceedings.\u0094* The Senate has passed  Rule 22 by a 2\/3rds vote.* In 2005, some Republicans flirted with the  idea of abolishing the filibuster for judicial nominees and the left fought that  idea with all they had within the Senate and in left-leaning think tanks. **In  2005, the term used to describe abolishing the filibuster was the \u0093Nuclear Option.\u0094*  Basically, this was a means to use a simple majority of the Senate to ignore the  rules of the Senate by claiming the filibuster was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for American Progress (CAP) set up a page  titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/2005\/05\/b672587.html\" >The Nuclear  Option<\/a> were they wrote \u0093the filibuster is one of the only ways  to encourage genuine bipartisan cooperation and compromise on important issues  that come before the Senate.\u0094* CAP hosted a conference titled, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/kf\/goingnucleartranscript.pdf\" >Going  Nuclear \u0096 The Threat to our System of Checks and Balances<\/a> on April 25,  2005.* John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress spoke  at the event where he said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>by removing the safeguard offered by the filibuster,  the nuclear option would seriously and perhaps irreparably damage an institution  that has functioned since the its inception under customs and traditions that  ensure an atmosphere of careful deliberation and mutual respect.* Ultimately,  this is not a dispute between the left and the right.* It is a matter of right  and wrong.* It\u0092s a choice between safeguarding our system of checks and balances  or destabilizing it; between upholding the Senate\u0092s coequal role in the  confirmation progress or diminishing it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This same think tank is now messaging  for an <a href=\"http:\/\/pr.thinkprogress.org\/\" >abolition  of the filibuster<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other outlets  who have advocated the abolition of the filibuster include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/01\/11\/opinion\/11geoghegan.html?ref=opinion&amp;pagewanted=all\" >New York Times<\/a>,*<a href=\"http:\/\/motherjones.com\/kevin-drum\/2010\/01\/unconstitutional-filibuster\" >Mother Jones<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/yglesias.thinkprogress.org\/archives\/2010\/01\/the-constitutionality-of-the-filibuster.php\" >Think Progress<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonmonthly.com\/archives\/individual\/2010_01\/021869.php\" >Washington Monthly<\/a>.* Daily Kos wants to \u0093<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/1\/11\/823848\/-Can-You-Help-Me-End-the-Filibuster\" >end  the filibuster<\/a>.\u0094* Ezra Klein maps out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/1\/11\/823848\/-Can-You-Help-Me-End-the-Filibuster\" >4  ways to end the filibuster<\/a>.* Even the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/1\/11\/823848\/-Can-You-Help-Me-End-the-Filibuster\" >President<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/1\/11\/823848\/-Can-You-Help-Me-End-the-Filibuster\" >Vice  President<\/a> have weighed in against the filibuster.* The irony is that many of  these same politicians supported and participated in filibusters before they  were against it.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Barack Obama voted on January 30, 2006, to  filibuster the nomination of Sam Alito to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.*  Senator Obama filibustered the nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. Ambassador  to the United Nations &#8230; twice.* The President\u0092s words do not match up with his  actions as a Senator.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Biden\u0092s record also belies a double  standard on the filibuster.* <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redstate.com\/brian_d\/2010\/01\/19\/vice-president-biden-v-senator-biden-on-filibuster\/\" >Vice  President Biden<\/a> stated on May 23, 2005. that eliminating the filibuster from  the Senate\u0092s rules:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>extinguishes the power of Independents and moderates in this  Senate. That is it. They are done. Moderates are important only if you need to  get 60 votes to satisfy cloture. They are much less important if you need only  50 votes. I understand the frustration of our Republican colleagues. I have been  here 32 years, most of the time in the majority. Whenever you are in the  majority, it is frustrating to see the other side block a bill or a nominee you  support. I have walked in your shoes, and I get it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Evidently some time in the  executive branch has changed the minds of our President and Vice  President.<\/p>\n<p>On an interesting note, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)  spoke at the CAP public event in 2005 and put the filibuster in historical  context.* \u0093Plutarch reported that while Caesar was on sojourn in Spain, the election opposed his  request and attempted to prevent his success by gaining time with which view he  spun out the debate until it was too late to conclude upon anything that day.*  Hey!* The filibuster has only been around 2,064 years, since circa 59 BC.\u0094* The  filibuster has a very long tradition.<\/p>\n<p>Both Republicans and Democrats have exhibited bipartisan  hypocrisy on the issue of the filibuster.* It is time for cooler heads to  prevail and retain the long history and tradition of unlimited debate and  amendment in the Senate. Any attempt to abolish the filibuster should be met with bipartisan disdain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/01\/26\/all-out-attack-by-the-left-on-the-filibuster\/\" >http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/01\/26\/&#8230;he-filibuster\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 01.26.10 11:50 AM posted by Brian Darling Liberals in America are mad because they *have had a difficult time implementing an unpopular far left agenda, especially with regard to Obamacare.*One of the results of this rage is for liberals to attack one of the rules in the Senate that protects unlimited debate and amendment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}