Mr. Smith Is Vaporized in the Fire of a Thousand Suns

[kentuck]

http://prospect.org/article/mr-smith-vaporized-fire-thousand-suns

<snip>
Whatever happens this summer, we should realize that the next time Republicans control the White House and the Senate, the filibuster will be gone.

<snip>
It hasn't gotten too much attention given the other things that are going on, but there is a battle looming this summer over the filibuster, one that could be a significant milestone in the already poisonous relationship between the parties on Capitol Hill. As Republicans have moved from filibustering every significant piece of legislation to also filibustering cabinet nominees (something that was extraordinarily rare until now), Democrats' frustration on the filibuster has grown. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is threatening to use the "nuclear option," forcing a vote to change Senate rules to circumvent the filibuster (though probably only on presidential nominations).

Reid would no doubt be cheered by many on the left if he did so, but others will warn to be careful what you wish for. After all, once you remove the filibuster, doesn't that open the door to Republicans running roughshod over the Democrats if and when they get the majority back in the Senate?

Let's be realistic here. Unless there's some kind of major upheaval within the Republican party that moves it back to the center, when the day comes that there's a Republican president and a Republican senate, the filibuster will be gone. It won't take a Democratic minority using it with the profligacy Republicans have, either. All it will take is one filibuster on something Republicans care about. Today's Republicans don't care about the institution's traditions, or about what kind of precedent they might set. They care about getting what they want. If you think they won't do it, you haven't been paying much attention to American politics over the last five years.


....more

[loves_dulcinea]

1. you seem to be under the illusion

that were the roles reversed, republicans wouldn't have enacted the nuclear option.

living in a red state, i can tell you without any hesitation, Republicans would have wiped their asses with the notion of filibuster. They then would have put in place a provision in the rules some mechanism that would have allowed them to balk a Democratic majority, were any such aberration to take place.

Been living with the anger from the right for a long time and have seen the hypocrisy real close up.

[kentuck]

2. ???

Did you read the article?

[loves_dulcinea]

3. lol

sorry. didn't even see the link.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. An extremely disturbing prospect

One would hope that people finally get sick of these kind of GOP shenanigans and finally get rid of enough of them for this to not even be an issue. It is crazy that this behavior is tolerated by people. I mean, they don't have any legitimate critiques of any of these cabinet nominees but they are basically getting away with sabotaging the legitimately created agencies they've been nominated to.

[DevonRex]

5. Exactly. Reid has deliberately slowed down

much of what Obama tried to get done, IMO. And watered other things down to nothing. Like when he put Max Baucus in charge of Health Care Reform. That slowed and watered it down and got rid of the public option.

By the time Reid gets rid of the filibuster it'll be too late to make a lot of difference. Or I'll believe it when I see it, iow.

[Scuba]

6. +1

[Danascot]

7. A GOP majority would never have to worry about

a Dem filibuster. They're either too spineless to put one on or they would fall all over themselves "compromising", ie caving.

[dsc]

8. I hope the filibuster does go away

what we have now is the opposite of Democracy. In the House, the GOP won more seats with fewer votes and in the Senate they get to run the show since we now need 60 votes for pretty much anything. That is minority rule and it would be no better if the minority were us, ruling. Voters ought to get what they voted for, and if they vote for tea party rule then tea party rule they should get.