Here’s a rule of thumb: when you’re in the minority in a legislative body, but enjoy some sort of a check on the majority to lock up legislation, you never surrender your key – certainly not for a worthless promise from the majority. Unfortunately, Senator Lamar Alexander has not internalized that lesson. Evidently, he was serious when he said he wanted to resign from leadership | Read More »
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 »
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 »
Anne Boleyn was queen for 1000 days then her head rolled off her shoulders thanks to a Frenchman’s sword. We’re seeing the Anne Boleyn of budgets making its way to Capitol Hill now — after 1000 days the President is finally presenting his budget. But like the last one that got rejected 97-0 in the Senate, this one too, it seems, will get rejected by | Read More »
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 »
Yesterday, Roll Call published an article suggesting that Harry Reid has had quite an auspicious year as Majority Leader. They observe the fact that Reid has won a larger percentage of cloture votes this year than in 2010, even though his caucus has been diminished from 59 senators to 53: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid managed to win more than half of the filibuster-breaking votes | Read More »
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 »
From the diaries by Erick “Unless there’s a surprise Supreme Court vacancy this year, this is the big fight of the year,” said Curt Levey, executive director of the conservative Committee for Justice. Levey and many other conservatives argue that Liu is an extraordinary circumstance. – David Ingram, Legal Times (5/17/11) This excerpt summarizes the showdown that will occur tomorrow when Senate Democrats force a | Read More »
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.”
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 »
Scare quotes, because it’s DC Kabuki Time! For those who are not ‘blessed’ enough to live within the Beltway – or downwind of it – this is that special time in the legislative calendar where federal politicians preserve the status quo by changing nothing at all and putting a big, red bow on the result. In this particular case, the scenario is as follows: for | Read More »
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 »
Promoted from the diaries by Bill S. by Michael E. Hammond, former General Counsel Senate Steering Committee 1978-89. One would think it would be pretty easy to understand why conservatives wouldn’t want to give Harry Reid more power. Reid has corruptly used the Senate rules to cram liberal legislation like ObamaCare down the American people’s throats. And, now that his Democrats have been repudiated in | Read More »
by Michael E. Hammond, former General Counsel Senate Steering Committee 1978-89. Senate Democrats in the 111th Congress got a lot of mileage from procedural cheating (fiscal and legislative) –- and from extorting concessions from Republicans by threatening to cheat. For instance, the accounting tricks used to pass ObamaCare would have, if employed by a private business, put the company’s CEO in prison for the rest | Read More »
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 »
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