REPUBLICANS SET NEW RECORD FOR BLOCKING ANY & ALL LEGISLATION

<<< US Senate Chamber

Even though the Democrats seldom used it their advantage, the Republicans in the Senate had gripped for years about the Democrats capability of using the "filibuster" when the Democrats had their long-time, large Senate majority. But today, now that the Democrats have the potential to gain their Senate majority back in the coming November elections, the Republicans are actually following through on what they had complained about when the Democrats previously had the ability to stop any legislation by using the age-old "filibuster method".

Since the Democrats won their razor-thin majority back in 2006, the Republicans have now used the filibuster a record 80 times to halt any legislation offered by the Democrats. Even with the small majority of 51 to 49 that the Senate Democrats have today, it still takes 60 votes to pass a Senate bill that would also over-ride a possible filibuster or a presidential veto. Based on these numbers, the Republican Senate leadership has decided to only "rarely" allow any "moderate" Republicans to vote on the Democratic side of an issue, whether the legislation is good for the country or not. All the Republican Senators have to do today is open up the debate on the Senate floor and keep it going until the Democrats eventually give in and give up. This action virtually stops the bill in its tracks, and they then move on to other bills or new business.

As has recently become a routine in the Senate, the Senate Republicans, with the aid of a couple of conservative Democrats, successfully obstructed the passage of a global warming bill that would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases. The measure fell 12 votes shy of the 60 votes needed in the Senate. It has since been pulled from consideration by the Democratic leadership.

Such action would normally strike a more depressing note if it had not become the Senate norm over the last 2 years. Republicans in the Senate have filibustered ~80 pieces of legislation in the current session of Congress. (This is an all-time record, and the session isn't over yet.) Not all of these attempts to block legislation have ended in success. A few bills actually have passed, but this latest rate of obstructionism has been historic, far surpassing the previous record of 62 filibusters.

A LITTLE "FILIBUSTER" HISTORY:

Using the filibuster to delay or block legislative action has a very long history. The term "filibuster" comes from a Dutch word meaning "pirate". It became popular in the 1850s, when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill. In the early years of Congress, representatives as well as senators could filibuster. However, as the House of Representatives grew in numbers, revisions to the House rules limited debate. In the smaller Senate, unlimited debate continued on the grounds that any senator should have the right to speak as long as necessary on any issue.

In 1841, when the Democratic minority hoped to block a bank bill promoted by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, he threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to close debate. Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton rebuked Clay for trying to stifle the Senate's right to unlimited debate.

Three quarters of a century later, in 1917, senators adopted a rule (Rule 22), at the urging President Woodrow Wilson, that allowed the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, a device known as "cloture". The new Senate rule was first put to the test in 1919, when the Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster against the Treaty of Versailles. Even with the new "cloture" rule, filibusters remained an effective means to block legislation, since a two-thirds vote is difficult to obtain. Over the next five decades, the Senate occasionally tried to invoke cloture, but usually failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote. Filibusters were particularly useful to Southern senators. They continually sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until cloture was invoked after a fifty-seven day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths, or sixty of the current one hundred senators.

Many Americans are familiar with the filibuster conducted by the actor, Jimmy Stewart, playing Senator Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra's film; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. However, there have also been some famous filibusters in the real-life US Senate. During the 1930s, Senator Huey Long effectively used the filibuster against bills that he thought favored the rich over the poor. The Louisiana senator frustrated his colleagues while entertaining spectators with his recitations of Shakespeare and his reading of recipes for "pot-likkers". Senator Long once held the Senate floor for fifteen hours. However, the record for the longest, single, individual speech goes to J. Strom Thurmond (Both D & R- South Carolina), who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

THE REPUBLICANS & THE "FILIBUSTER" TODAY, 2008:

Today, the filibuster is used by the Republicans as a routine measure on virtually every bill and it is used on bills where there is a Republican consensus as a tactic to just slow things down. As stated by Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert with the American Enterprise Institute; "The continuous use of the filibuster is sending Congress' approval rating down into the sewer, but it is also sending each of the Republican Senators even further into the sewer."

Among the recent pieces of legislation that have been blocked, they included bills that would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to allow all US employees to file charges of worker's pay discrimination; they blocked an expanded economic stimulus package and a slew of Iraq troop withdrawal measures.

The GOP's current standard-bearer, John McCain, has been in the midst of several of these efforts. He voted against ending the debate on a bill that would have raised the minimum wage. The "War Hero McCain", also up held the blockage of an amendment that would have standardized the amount of time for troops to serve in Iraq and he voted to hold up legislation that would have restored Habeas Corpus rights to military detainees under U.S. detention.

On the whole, however, McCain has been more absent than active in recent Senate affairs, having missed more than 350 votes (60.5%) during the current Congress. (This is also an all-time record for a Senator not-voting.)

Today, basic math suggests that the current Republican Senate leadership has taken the practice of using the filibuster to new extremes. Former Minority Whip, Trent Lott - (R, Mississippi), freely admitted back in the summer of 2007, that the "strategy of being obstructionist by the Republicans was neither historically unique nor significant". Overall, that statement may be true. However, it is now being used with no regard as to whether it should, or should not be used, on the basis of the merits of the legislation. Today the Republicans seem to be saying; "If the Democrats want it, kill it!"

As another example, on the previously considered climate change bill, the GOP again dug in its heels by utilizing parliamentary maneuvers. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R- Kentucky), upset over the slow pace of consideration of conservative Republican judicial nominees, McConnell effectively shut down the entire Senate by forcing the Senate clerk to read "the entire 500 page global warming bill" out loud.

"If you use [the filibuster] selectively and on important issues, and especially if you use it to force the other side to negotiate with you, that is appropriate," said Ornstein. "But if you use it routinely... to throw molasses onto the road for slowing everything down, I don't think people will find any of that laudatory."

For the record, the climate change legislation, according to the Associated Press, "would have capped carbon dioxide coming from power plants, refineries and factories, with a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 71 percent by mid-century." Republicans painted the bill as promising "a huge tax increase". The Democrats have denied that claim and even noted that this legislation would have actually "provided tax relief to help people pay their higher energy bills".

Ah yes, our current, "fair & balanced" US Senate.