Posted on 12/29/2010 8:21:09 PM PST by Kaslin
Politics: The Senate Majority Leader has a plan to deal with Republican electoral success. When you lose the game, you simply change the rules. When you only have 53 votes, you lower the bar to 51.
When Harry Reid was hawking his book "The Good Fight" on C-Span's "Book Notes" in 2008, he described how he had vehemently opposed GOP plans for the "nuclear option," changing the rules to break a Democratic filibuster on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. Only 51 votes would be needed to move them along.
"What the Republicans came up with was a way to change our country forever," Reid stated. "We would in fact have a unicameral legislature where a simple majority would determine everything that happens ... the Senate was set up to be different. That was the genius, the vision, of our Founding Fathers."
Reid forgot the Founding Fathers when he considered something similar to get ObamaCare through the Senate and on President Obama's desk.
Now he is planning to use the same mechanism he once considered a threat to democracy to thwart GOP gains in the Senate and outright control of the House of Representatives.
Currently, under Senate Rule 22 it takes a three-fifths vote, or 60 senators, for cloture to shut off the potentially endless debate known as a filibuster.
But it takes a two-thirds vote, or 67 Senators, to change a Senate rule. The reason is the differing nature of the House and Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Yes, there should be more. I think we will see the clearing out of those Dem Senators in the near future from red states.
Technically 21, and 2 former rats that caucus with them, Sanders and Lieberman. Many of the rats first elected in 2006 were more "moderate" or "conservative" rats. They could bail out on Harry's plan. If they don't, they pull the plug on RINOs as useless idiots wanting to work across the aisle. The main problem is judicial nominees while rats control the Senate, if Reid pulls this off. We'll see if he has the testicles.
Reid has always been a POS.
I actually love this because if he thought it was a bloodbath in November, in 2 years you won’t see a “D” around anywhere.
IIRC, the Republican measure was only regarding appointments (judges, agency heads, etc.), not all sorts of other votes as Reid proposes. IOW, if the GOP attempt was the “nuclear option”, the Democrats are proposing a “doomsday option”.
Woodrow Wilson and the 17th Amendment.
But it takes a two-thirds vote, or 67 Senators, to change a Senate rule.
Is he on drugs ???
He barely had [for a short period of time in the last Senate] the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. But, under current Senate rules, he would have needed 7 GOP to cross over to overturn the rule.
In the new Senate, he will only have 54 votes, meaning that 6 GOP would need to cross over in order to invoke cloture. And, he would need another 7 GOP to cross over to overturn the rule.
Thats 13 GOP crossing over in the new Senate - DUH !!! Ya think its gonna happen ???
What would the Founding Fathers have done to the Harry Traitor? We live in a very dangerous time where Traitors are in most of the positions of high power.
Dingy Harry needs only 51 Democrats to go along with him. If he wants to be more just a titular majority leader, that’s the card he’s going to play when the new Congress convenes on Monday.
Don’t make me laugh. With the RINOs, the Democrats may still be able to get their agenda through the Senate even though it will never pass the House.
Don’t make me laugh. With the RINOs, the Democrats may still be able to get their agenda through the Senate even though it will never pass the House.
If their lips are moving, they are lying!
Because Bush 2004 - 2008 was a disaster.
Because in 2006, conservatives stayed home in disgust and disappointment of Bush.
Because in 2008 conservatives could not stomach McCain and because independents swung to Obama.
The GOP proposal was very narrow, and covered only limiting debate before confirmation votes on Circuit and Supreme Court nominees.
Nothing Reid says is credible. I tend to think of him as a nut.
Importance of Senate Rules - December 8, 2006
The nuclear option was the most important issue I have worked on in my public life. Its rejection was my proudest moment as minority leader. I emerged from the episode with a renewed appreciation for the majesty of Senate rules. As majority leader, I intend to run the Senate with respect for the rules and for the minority rights the rules protect.The Senate was not established to be efficient. Sometimes the rules get in the way of efficiency. The Senate was established to make sure that minorities are protected. Majorities can always protect themselves, but minorities cannot. That is what the Senate is all about. For more than 200 years, the rules of the Senate have protected the American people, and rightfully so.
The need to muster 60 votes in order to terminate Senate debate naturally frustrates the majority and oftentimes the minority. I am sure it will frustrate me when I assume the office of majority leader in a few weeks. But I recognize this requirement is a tool that serves the long-term interest of the Senate and the American people and our country.
It is often said that the laws are "the system of wise restraints that set men free." The same might be said of the Senate rules.
I will do my part as majority leader to foster respect for the rules and traditions of our great institution. I say on this floor that I love so much that I believe in the Golden Rule. I am going to treat my Republican colleagues the way that I expect to be treated. There is no "I've got you," no get even. I am going to do everything I can to preserve the traditions and rules of this institution that I love.
The personnel complement of the judiciary is dependent on appropriations by the House. If there’s a vacancy and the House choses to not finance that seat anymore, that’s the end of that. Same with every significant treaty ~ they all need implementing legislation.
the left deparately wants the ability to replace one of the 5 conservative justices so they can write whatever they want as constitutional law.
this, with a calculated connivance against one of the five to step down/retire/pass away, will accomplish their wishes.
Fact: Angle went from 4 points up on Monday to 6 points down on Tued night.
That can only happen with voter fraud.
Dirty Harry controls Clark County—where 71% of the population lives, including thousands of illegals who were considered to have voted.
ACORN is still very active in Clark County.
SEIU local 1107 has the contract to ‘maintain & service’ the electronic voting machines.
From the first hour of the first day of ‘Early Voting”, there were complaints about votes for Sharron coming up on the screen as a vote for Harry. REPEATEDLY- despite doing it over & over.
The Sec of State is a die-hard Democrat who will do anything Harry asks.
He told the press & the citizens ‘this is only a little computer glitch’!!!!!
Since everything is recorded by computer—I don’t see how anything could be ‘just a little computer glitch’.
Another voter said she was number 7 in her polling location & that they use the paper ballots. She said that when she went to place her folded ballot into the see-thru translucent sealed box, it was already over 1/2 full.....& she was only voter #7!!!!
Voter fraud—the gift that keeps on giving-—especially to Dirty Harry Reid.
That's a convenient misconception about 2006.
Smackdown! By Independents & Moderates
Why? Because exit polls show there's a large chunk of the electorate that is moderate, independent-minded and turned off by partisanship. In exit polls, 47 percent of voters described their views as moderate, 21 percent liberal and 32 percent conservative. And 61 percent of the moderates voted Democratic this year.Because in 2008 conservatives could not stomach McCain and because independents swung to Obama.On party identification, 26 percent said they're Independent, which is in line with recent elections. But this year, Independents went Democratic by a 57-39 margin. That's what gave the day to Democrats. In the 2002 midterm, by contrast, Independents went Republican in a 48-45 split.
You're starting to get warm. Conservative disaffection with McCain are badly overrated anecdotes, IMHO.
Enemies of the White House - Discontent is growing on the center-right.
Most voters, including independents, remain right of center. This was ratified by the exit poll on Election Day. Only 22 percent identified themselves as liberal, while 34 percent were conservatives and 44 percent moderates.Independents favored the GOP by 18 % in 2010. Self identified conservatives are up to 42 %, and self identified are liberals are 20 %. I posted two threads about the 2010 exit poll. Independents can vary a great deal from state to state. In states like Massachusetts, they are more than half of registered voters. In the last election, independents usually varied between 20+ and 40+ percent depending on the state in question.
Yes independents are indeed the driving force of elections today.
But when I said conservatives stayed home in 2006, I wasn’t saying Republicans. There are many independents who are conservative and I remember distinctly the disgust they had with George Bush and the GOP at the time because he and the GOP had squandered the blood, sweat and tears expended in order to give Bush a GOP Congress and there was nothing nothing accomplished between 2004 and 2006.
The other factor and the more salient of the factors was Rahn Emanual recruiting conservatives into the dem party to run in conservative districts such as Hayward’s in AZ. That candidate was to the right of Hayworth. Rahm’s bluedogs gave control to the dems of the committees where they promptly set the agenda.
The five most noteworthy things that set me against Bush starting in late 2004 were:
1. Giving the backhand to the Swift Boat Vets
2. Accepting and dropping the shoddy work of the Tax Reform Commission that led to absolutely nothing but a nice boondoggle for a couple of former senators since turned tax lobbyists.
3. Proposing Harriet Miers for SCOTUS
4. Insistance on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (Amnesty)
5. Doing nothing nothing to crack down on the Wall St. malfeasance and outright theft from markets.
I remember clearly how people turned on Bush and his party and how he held his head in his hand on that 2006 election day wondering what happened. What a loser!
I saw the 2008 election as a punishment to the GOP for allowing the likes of John McCain to rise as candidate for President, and as an expression of begrudging Bush from having any legacy.
I saw the 2010 elections as a natural revolt against the political ruling class that is made up both of dems and RINOs. The 2006/2008 dicipline of conservatives and independents shooting the traitors and liars in the GOP gave rise to the Tea Party which is projected to gather more power and more supporters to finish the job in 2012.
As far as I am concerned there is only one party in America that matters and that is the Tea Party.
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