Real Kato Blog: The Nuclear Option

It is reported that Bill Frist is close to proposing the elimination of filibusters in the Senate.

A quick civics lesson for those who don't remember middle school, or those who've never seen "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington": A filibuster is a procedural delaying tactic used in the U.S. Senate, whereby a senator or group of senators can prevent a vote on an issue from taking place, by continuously keeping debate open on the issue.

These days, you don't actually have senators performing marathon sessions reading from Moby Dick or the Bible... just the threat of a filibuster is usually enough to kill an issue.

A filibuster can be ended if 60 members of the Senate vote to end the debate. Currently, the Republican party has a 55-member majority in the Senate, not quite enough to end a filibuster. Thus, the Democrats have managed to prevent a handful of Bush's judicial appointments from being confirmed (while going ahead and confirming several hundred appointments). Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) has called the Democrats' action "unprecedented"; apparently his memory doesn't go back to when he supported filibustering Clinton's nomination of Judge Richard Paez.

Frist is reportedly ready to advance a proposal that would allow filibusters to be ended by a simple majority of the Senate. Democrats are characterizing this proposal as a Republican power-grab, since it would effectively strip the minority party in the Senate of its most effective tactic. It isn't quite clear if moderate Republicans are ready to take this step. As John McCain (R-Ariz) noted, Republicans may not always be the majority party, and they may live to regret this move.

Democrats, for their part, are raising the stakes. First, they've started an advertising campaign denouncing the Republicans for their abuse of power. Second, they've threatened to use other procedural tactics to effectively grind the Senate to a halt, should Frist be successful in passing this proposal. (For example, many procedures in the Senate are bypassed by "unanimous consent", without debate or vote. Any Senator can object to unanimous consent, thereby requiring all procedures to be followed; this would make even the most trivial of matters require hours of discussions and motions.) That would probably mean that many items on the Bush agenda would never get accomplished.

So basically, the Democratic response would be: "Of course you realize, this means war." And Bush's promise to be a "uniter, not a divider" would be broken YET AGAIN. Is anyone surprised?

Bush could so easily end this confrontation by withdrawing his most contentious judicial candidates. But he won't. Because he's an ASS.

That is your civics lesson for today.

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: politics

Comments

Comment #1 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Apr 16 - 2:33 pm : #

I'm pretty liberal, but McCain has always seemed so sensible to me. He seems to make his own decisions and not follow the party line. I might-could even be persuaded to vote for him some day..............

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