Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Senate Dems Hypocritically Embrace Nuclear Option
IBD EDITORIALS ^ | November 27, 2012

Posted on 11/27/2012 4:12:42 PM PST by raptor22

Congress: Changing the filibuster rule come January has suddenly become a top priority for Senate Democrats who want to help their re-elected president complete his fundamental transformation of America.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday blasted Democratic-led efforts to reform the filibuster, something the Democrats once vehemently opposed but which Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to bring up in the next Congress, fearing the Republicans will dig in to block President Obama's agenda.

What Reid and the Democrats will come up with is unknown at this point. Among the options is to ban filibusters that block the start of floor debates and House-Senate conference committees from convening.

One proposal would force senators to actually get up and talk endlessly in order to filibuster legislation, which senators were required to do until 1975, as depicted in the classic Jimmy Stewart film, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington."

Then there's the so-called "nuclear option," which would call for just a simple majority, or 51 votes, to change Senate rules. Changing the rules usually requires two-thirds of the chamber, or 67 votes. It's something Reid vehemently opposed in 2005, when Senate Republicans ruled the roost.

Some GOP senators in 2005 considered the nuclear option to push President Bush's judicial nominees that were being held up, but only for judicial nominations. Sen. Reid was a valiant defender of the filibuster then, saying: "Some in this chamber want to throw out 214 years of Senate history in the quest for absolute power ... . They think they're wiser than our Founding Fathers. I doubt that's true."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: democrats; dingyharry; filibuster; harryreid; ibd; nuclearoption; senate

1 posted on 11/27/2012 4:12:53 PM PST by raptor22
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: raptor22

What rules do the Democrats play by? They make up the rules as they go.


2 posted on 11/27/2012 4:14:14 PM PST by FreedBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22
I am sick of all of this political maneuvering and reporting of same.

It's like we're waiting to breathe until we fully masticate, swallow, digest and excrete the next step these stooges in Washington are going to take over whatever the media deems to be the issue of the day.

I'm out.

3 posted on 11/27/2012 4:33:24 PM PST by elkfersupper ( Member of the Original Defiant Class)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22; Nachum; markomalley; Clairity; Carlucci; grey_whiskers; meyer; WL-law; Para-Ord.45; ...

4 posted on 11/27/2012 4:38:53 PM PST by raptor22 (Join me on Twitter @gerfingerpoken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22; Nachum; markomalley; Clairity; Carlucci; grey_whiskers; meyer; WL-law; Para-Ord.45; ...

5 posted on 11/27/2012 4:39:22 PM PST by raptor22 (Join me on Twitter @gerfingerpoken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

RATS always win. Pubbies always give in.

We have Olympia Snowe to thank for Obamacare and the resulting Communist takeover of the United States. She could have killed Obamacare in committee. She sold out her Party and the Nation.


6 posted on 11/27/2012 4:40:55 PM PST by SC_Pete
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22
The GOP hasn't got the intestinal fortitude to do this, but the House could affect the Senate rules. For instance, if the Senate rules are changed so that a simple majority can change any rules concerning conference committees and appointments to such committees, the House could refuse to appoint conferees unless the Democrat Senate were to revert to the old rules.
7 posted on 11/27/2012 4:46:51 PM PST by Truth29
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22
This is SPECIFICALLY designed for two things:

The Messiah gets rubber-stamped party-line votes for his Agenda

The Judicial System will be PACKED with Liberal/Communist Agenda Judges at all levels, INCLUDING replacing retiring Supreme Court Justices.

We are truly 3rd World now.

Unless the Republicans grow balls overnite, and CHALLENGE ALL Appointments made by The Messiah previously, and Executive Order Abuse, AND, Boehner de-funds all the Czars, Regulatory Agencies, Obamacare staffing (including 10,000 new IRS jobs), we will have no future, whatsoever, except as communist serfs.

8 posted on 11/27/2012 5:21:53 PM PST by traditional1 (Don't gotsta worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gotsta worry 'bout no gas; Obama gonna take care o' me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

I’m out too.


9 posted on 11/27/2012 5:24:20 PM PST by bigheadfred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: traditional1
The Judicial System will be PACKED with Liberal/Communist Agenda Judges at all levels, INCLUDING replacing retiring Supreme Court Justices.

No more calls, we have a bingo.

10 posted on 11/27/2012 5:34:41 PM PST by VRW Conspirator (We were the tea party before there was a tea party. - Jim Robinson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: raptor22
The nuclear option would be devastating on future federal budgets as long as Democrats control the Senate and we retain the 17th Amendment.

Perhaps, a future implementation of the nuclear option would be advantageous when the GOP has control of the Senate and and the 17th is repealed.

11 posted on 11/27/2012 5:43:45 PM PST by OKRA2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

We are Egypt. Obama is our Pharaoh.


12 posted on 11/27/2012 5:45:47 PM PST by FlyingEagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: traditional1

I completely agree with you. I no longer know my country and we have the Repubs. in DC and the media to thank for it (along with millions of mind-numbed idiots who retain the right to vote)


13 posted on 11/27/2012 5:59:37 PM PST by Cookies4ever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Truth29

That is what I was thinking. Whatever the Senate does then the House should follow suit in blocking the democrats. Since the GOP are actually closet liberals then they will never do it.


14 posted on 11/27/2012 5:59:45 PM PST by Revel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Revel

All repubs need to grow a pair. They likely won’t.


15 posted on 11/27/2012 6:11:09 PM PST by ogen hal (First amendment or reeducation camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: raptor22
The Republicans, even if they win the White House in 4 years, are not going to have 60 votes in the Senate. They only hold 8 seats in the Senate "class" that was just up, and the Democrats hold 25. That means that only 30 of the 67 seats up in the next two elections are Democrat, and the Republicans would have to take half of them to have sixty votes.

So the Republicans, even if they take the Senate and White Houuse, won't be able to stop filibusters. And the Republicans will never have the nerve to change the rule, so we need Reid to do it for us.

16 posted on 11/27/2012 6:17:47 PM PST by Pilsner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

Lazy Harry is scared of McConnell,
Lazy Harry is scared of McConnell,
Lazy Harry is scared of McConnell,
Lazy Harry is scared of McConnell.


17 posted on 11/27/2012 7:48:57 PM PST by Graewoulf ((Traitor John Roberts' Obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND the U.S. Constitution.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OKRA2012
"Perhaps, a future implementation of the nuclear option would be advantageous when the GOP has control of the Senate and and the 17th is repealed."

The GOP, for whomever they claim to represent, will only have control when elections have meaning. Today, without any audit trail, Democrats, the government and its Union employees, have complete control of elections. As Stalin observed, only who counts the votes matters. Democrats, the SEIU, manages machines, which are intrinsically unverifiable, manages and counts (if they even bother) absentee ballots in almost all states. It is not easy for people who have not thought about securing data. But our elections have no audit trail and thus claims of vote counts are entirely without substance.

Our best chance at reforming our society may be to finish off the charade of a two party system and all become democrats. Our only hope is to reform “bottom up”. The counts will continue to be manufactured, but we may have influence over local candidates. If in a local county election there are 10 people at campaign events for the Sierra Club Marxist, and 1000 at campaign events for the conservative, but the Marxist is reported as having won 90% of the precinct, there will be local sentiment for reform. Otherwise, we will remain divided, because national audiences don't know or care what happens outside of their neighborhoods. We will remain what we are today, a one party socialist dictatorship.

18 posted on 11/27/2012 8:20:43 PM PST by Spaulding
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

This country was founded on a system of checks and balances. Each separate but equal. Move away from that paradigm and chaos will follow as sure as the sun rises in the east. We’ve become too partisan and drink too much of the poisoned water. This has to stop. Harry Reid obviously never studied American history or civics. He is Obama’s stooge.


19 posted on 11/28/2012 4:33:39 AM PST by New Jersey Realist (America: home of the free because of the brave)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raptor22

No filibuster? then hands on methods might change some minds, especially if the leading mind is no longer functioning in a conscious manner


20 posted on 11/28/2012 4:43:41 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson