Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  May 15th at 01:30 PM  | 

Today Ezra Klein at the Washington Post put out a piece promoting Common Cause’s lawsuit to have the Senate filibuster declared unconstitutional.  Klein repeats myth after myth about the filibuster.  This piece should commence an interesting national debate finally putting the argument to bed that the filibuster is somehow unconstitutional.  Abolition of the filibuster will lead to a Senate with less time for debate and limited transparency for the American people. It | Read More »

Senate Majority Leader Reid Playing Politics With Nominations

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  March 13th at 01:00 PM  | 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has tossed some red meat to his left wing base who have called for an end to the filibuster.  On Monday, Reid filed cloture on 17 district court nominations as a means to argue that Republicans are obstructing President Obama’s judicial nominations.  According to one Senate study, President Obama and President George W. Bush’s nominations are on the same pace. Reid’s allegations of Republican obstructionism are pure politics.  | Read More »

Fake Filibuster Outrage From Left

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  March 12th at 06:10 PM  | 

The left is fear-mongering on the issue of the filibuster.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on 17 nominees today and the left was quick to parrot the Reid talking points claiming Republican “obstruction” of these nominees.  The fact of the matter is that there is no filibuster and Reid is merely setting the table so he can make hysterical arguments about Republican obstructionism. | Read More »

Cordray and NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  January 6th at 02:30 PM  | 

Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese and Todd Gaziano, both with my employer The Heritage Foundation, have written an excellent piece in the Washington Post explaining why the installation of Richard Cordray as head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Richard Griffin, Sharon Block and Terence Flynn to be on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are unconstitutional acts.The president claimed to use the constitutional power of the | Read More »

Richard Cordray, The Filibuster And The CFPB

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 7th at 12:30 PM  | 

Senate filibusters over nominations often have more to do with policy issues than the qualifications of a nominee.  That’s the case now with the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to be the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Much has been written about Cordray’s history as a liberal activist, yet the real motivation behind the Republican filibuster is an effort to protect consumers from | Read More »

Senate Democrats Embrace Filibuster

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  April 8th at 11:30 AM  | 

In the budget battle that threatens to shut down government, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has embraced the filibuster as a tool to preserve government funding for Planned Parenthood. This is the same Senator Schumer who, as recently as January, had denounced the filibuster as a tool to “grind the Senate to a halt.”

The Filibuster Is Preserved – Progressives Lose

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  January 27th at 06:30 PM  | 

Moe has a good post on the demise of so called “Filibuster Reform” from earlier today.  The Senate voted on a package of rules reform proposals, but the filibuster is safe from an attempt by a simple majority of Senators to expunge it from the rules of the Senate.  The minority party and individual Senators will retain the right to force an extended debate and participate in the | Read More »

Repeal of ObamaCare in the Senate – How To Do It

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  January 18th at 04:30 PM  | 

I just posted a piece on The Heritage Foundation blog, The Foundry, titled “How to Repeal ObamaCare in the Senate.”  I tried to put into easy to understand terms the way for the Senate to repeal the unconstitutional ObamaCare.  Although it is unlikely that the Senate will take up the House repeal measure H.R. 2 in the next few months, it is possible to bring it | Read More »

So Called Constitutional Option Is A Trick

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  January 5th at 04:00 PM  | 

The Senate commenced debate on a filibuster reform today.  Be aware that liberals in the Senate are using strong arm tactics to seize power.  They are using something called the “Constitutional Option” and you need to understand that this is a rhetorical and procedural trick.  There is nothing unconstitutional about the filibuster and the “Constitutional Option” is a means to ignore the explicit rules of the | Read More »

How Liberals Plan To Destroy The Senate With 51 Votes

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 28th at 04:00 PM  | 

Progressives, liberals and left of center politicians have teamed up to radically curtail the rights of Republican Senators in the next Congress.  They have a plan to “kill the filibuster,” so that they can establish a top down system of control next year in the Senate.  This plan to kill the filibuster will stifle dissent and relegate Republican Senators to observer status in the newly reformed Senate.  | Read More »

Senate Democrats Poised for Power Grab

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 23rd at 07:00 PM  | 

Senate Democrats are going to be working over the Christmas break to deliver a lump of coal to the American people in the form of a radical changing of the Senate’s rules.  This is a naked power grab by liberals in the Senate pure and simple.  The National Journal reports that Senate Democrats are laying the groundwork to chip away at the filibuster on January 5, | Read More »

Filibuster Reform – “The Quest for Absolute Power”

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 17th at 05:30 PM  | 

Liberals want to do away with the filibuster, in the name of “Filibuster Reform,” so they can have complete control over the Senate agenda in the next Congress.  Before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took over his position as the most powerful member of the Senate, he was against filibuster reform.  Now he is for it.  The fight for so called Filibuster Reform is merely | Read More »

An Easy Way to Stop Filibuster Reform

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 6th at 07:30 PM  | 

Liberal Democrats are going to take a run at the Filibuster in January.  The have adopted idea that the Senate is not a continuing body and that the rules can be changed with a simple majority of Senators voting in a new Congress, in January, to adopt new rules.  This interpretation of the Senate rules ignores the clear rules of the Senate and long tradition | Read More »

Filibuster Reform is “Unwise”

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  December 1st at 04:30 PM  | 

Retiring Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) gave his farewell speech on the Senate floor yesterday and he reiterated his opposition to filibuster reform.  Dodd, as quoted by The Hill, said yesterday: I can understand the temptation to change the rules that make the Senate so unique — and, simultaneously, so frustrating.  The Senate was designed to be different, not simply for the sake of variety, but because | Read More »

Obama Hopes to Change the Filibuster

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  October 28th at 02:00 AM  | 

President Obama was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night and attacked the filibuster not once, but twice.  It is funny that the President was one of many liberal Democrat Senators who fought to protect the filibuster in 2005. The filibuster is contained in the Senate Rules (Rule 22) and merely protects the right of extended debate by Senators before a final vote | Read More »

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post Urges Democrat’s Engage in “Power Grab”

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  July 28th at 10:03 AM  | 

Yesterday, in the Washington Post, Ezra Klein argued for Democrat Senators to use their power to abolish the filibuster.  Ironically, Ezra Klein in 2005 argued that the same tactic when used by Republicans was a “power grab” and an abuse of power.  Place Klein’s Washington Post column of 2010 next to the Klein column of 2005 and one might conclude that Klein is a partisan hack.  | Read More »

Obama Pushes Health Care Nuclear Option

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  March 3rd at 12:00 PM  | 

President Obama is advocating the use of the budget reconciliation process to pass ObamaCare through the House and Senate.  This procedure also referred to as the ObamaCare Nuclear Option and the Health Care Nuclear Option because the liberals are using this procedure as a means to get around the filibuster in the Senate.  This same President Obama who opposed the Nuclear Option in 2005 as a back bench Senator. 

The ObamaCare Nuclear Option

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  February 17th at 11:13 AM  | 

Over at NROnline’s The Corner, Daniel Foster wrote an interesting piece where he explained how Vice President Joe Biden could press the button to launch the Senate’s reconciliation Nuclear Option.  This strategy is the only way the Democrats can get ObamaCare across the finish line and to the President’s desk in the next few weeks. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office has come up | Read More »

Paul Krugman’s Filibuster Fear-Mongering

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  February 9th at 06:00 AM  | 

The latest in a long line of attacks on the filibuster comes from Paul Krugman of the New York Times.  Krugman, better known professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and Captain of the Obama Administration Cheerleading Squad, wrote a column arguing that the filibuster is destroying America.  Krugman argued that filibustering Republicans, not international terrorists, not a nuclear weapon seeking Iran, not | Read More »

Huffington Post Attacks Filibuster Again

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  February 5th at 01:00 PM  | 

The left is using every opportunity to fight the filibuster.  As I have argued at Red State and Big Government numerous times, the filibuster is essential for democracy.  Don’t be fooled, the left will use any excuse to message against the right of the minority to debate nominations and offer amendments to legislation.  The far left would like to establish rule without dissent and have contempt for anybody that disagrees | Read More »