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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker resisted pressure from the White House and joined other Republican senators today in blocking President Barack Obama's nominee to lead a new federal agency set up to stop abuses by the financial industry. GOP senators filibustered the nomination of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The 53-45 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the GOP opposition and confirm Cordray for the position. The agency was created under the Wall Street reforms Obama signed into law last year and...

Yesterday, we wrote about our CEO Michael Needham’s question for the candidates in last night’s debate. When asked by the Washington Post what Mr. Needham would ask the candidates, he responded: “A third of small business owners say Obamacare is one of the biggest hurdles they face to hiring new workers and budget analysts estimate it is a trillion-dollar budget buster. Given its negative impact on the economy and federal budget, do you think it is appropriate to repeal Obamacare using reconciliation given that is the tactic which was employed to pass it?” Well the candidates must have been listening...

In a stunning turn of events Thursday night where tempers appeared to boil over on the floor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and many Senate Democrats, through a complicated bit of legislative jiu-jitsu, managed to change the rules of the body, in a manner similar to the so-called “nuclear option.” The vote centered around a procedural maneuver known as “a motion to suspend Senate rules.” The tactic was an attempt by the minority to force what would have been a symbolic vote on President Obama’s jobs plan. It would have required 67 votes to pass, a target Senate Republicans were...

Reid appealed a ruling from the chair that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does not need consent to force a vote on a motion to suspend the rules to consider an amendment after cloture has already been approved. The maneuver is highly arcane but momentous. If a simple majority of the Senate votes to uphold Reid’s appeal, the Senate’s rules will have been changed by the unilateral action of one party. Republicans had considered using this maneuver, dubbed the “nuclear option” in 2005, to change Senate rules to prohibit the filibuster of judicial nominees. Democrats decried the plan and...

Japanese news is all awash this morning in every news agency with the bulletins that "President Obama announced that the debt ceiling agreement has been reached." They appear to be following CNN's international news lead and are leaving out critical facts. For example, this erroneous "flash alert" is typical and is seen also in Asahi, Sankei, Yomiuri, Nikkei, NHK and others: "米債務�題：上�引�上��与野党�� 　�北米�局】オ�マ米大統領�７月３１日�ホワイト�ウス�会見��米債務上�引�上��与野党��������発表��。"

9:50pm | Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he will filibuster the vote tomorrow, which will require 60 votes to break.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) warned Friday that President Obama faces turmoil in the Senate and in his reelection campaign if he includes Social Security cuts in any debt-ceiling deal. The senators said the White House has not communicated effectively to Senate Democrats and they and their rank-and-file colleagues are being frozen out of the process. “I have talked to some of my colleagues, including some that you might not expect, who say if [White House officials] bring to the Senate a piece of crap that comes down heavy on working families and children and the elderly...

Senate Backs Filibuster of Pro-Abortion Nominee Goodwin Liu Washington, DC -- The Senate votes today against a motion by Senate Democrats to cut off debate on Goodwin Lui, a pro-abortion law professor President Barack Obama selected to become a judge on a federal appeal court. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/19/senate-backs-filibuster-of-pro-abortion-nominee-goodwin-liu/

Senate Backs Filibuster of Pro-Abortion Nominee Goodwin Liu Washington, DC -- The Senate votes today against a motion by Senate Democrats to cut off debate on Goodwin Lui, a pro-abortion law professor President Barack Obama selected to become a judge on a federal appeal court. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/19/senate-backs-filibuster-of-pro-abortion-nominee-goodwin-liu/

MADISON, Wis. -- Democrats kept the Wisconsin Assembly up overnight with a droning filibuster in another desperate attempt to block the Republican governor's bold plan to strip public sector workers of nearly all of their bargaining rights.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin likes to taunt his Republican colleagues, arguing that ObamaCare can't be repealed because 60 votes are required to end debate in the Senate on any measure. Though Republicans will likely win control of the Senate in 2012, Mr. Durbin is right that they probably won't get to 60 senators. That would require the GOP to win back more than half the Democratic seats up next year. Rep. Jim Moran (D., Va.) recently called GOP promises of repeal "a political scam on their base. . . . It can't happen." Not so fast. Keith Hennessey, a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The filibuster lives on. The Senate voted overwhelmingly late Thursday to reject efforts to change its rules to restrict the blockades that have sewn gridlock and discord in recent years on Capitol Hill. Instead, senators settled on a more modest measure to prevent single lawmakers from anonymously holding up legislation and nominations, and the parties' Senate leaders announced a handshake deal to conduct business in a more efficient and civilized way

Because of Harry Reid, Tom Udall, and other Senate Democrats attempting to destroy the Senate's filibuster, not one piece of legislation has been debated or voted upon in the 112th United States Congress. The House has cut millions of dollars from their budget, has repealed two pieces of unpopular legislation and has agreed to reduce discretionary spending to 2008 levels. The Senate? They failed to destroy the Minority's right to block legislation proposed by the Majority, which the Democrat Party will need in two years. Obviously, the will of the voters is considered as just another obstacle to real leftwing...

The Democrats' anti-filibuster wing, led by Sen. Tom Udall, tried to muster support for the effort to kill, or at least substantially weaken, the filibuster. Udall wasn't, of course, trying to persuade Republicans to go along; all GOP senators opposed the idea. Rather, Udall and his allies were trying -- and, it turns out, failing -- to convince 51 Democrats to put an end to the filibuster. By Tuesday, it was clear they had failed. After the State of the Union, Reid adjourned the Senate, and the 22-day "first day" was over. The filibuster was untouched; nothing has been done...

Before the week is done, one of the longest single "days" in the history of the Senate is expected to finally come to an end. Amid a long-running dispute over decades-old filibuster rules, Senate leaders have used a parliamentary trick to leave the chamber in a state of suspended animation - in reality adjourned since Jan. 5 but officially considered in a long recess that's part of the same individual legislative day. This nearly three-week break has taken place in large part so leadership could hold private negotiations to consider how to deal with a group of Democrats agitating to...

Freedom Radio Rocks Sunday Jan 16 , 8 PM EST, with Joseph Connor, who on January 5th of this year met face to face with the FALN terrorist who murdered his father, Frank Connor at the terrorist bombing of the Frances Tavern in NY in The murderer's co conspirators were pardoned by Bill Clinton. Read more about his story at Big Peace and here. Also returning to Freedom Radio will be Brian Darling who is the Director of Senate Relations at The Heritage Foundation. He is responsible for minitoring political developments in the Senate as well as its relations with...

Republican House leaders passed a package of sensible reforms to chamber rules last week, and now Senate Democrats have offered their own rule changes. Unfortunately, Democrats trample on the explicit language of Senate rules even when professing reformist intent. ~snip! Mr. Reid is trying to adopt these changes with 51 votes rather than the normal 67 necessary for new procedures. This is unlawful because the Senate's Rule 5 states, "The rules of the Senate shall continue from one Congress to the next Congress." The 67-vote requirement, explicit in Rule 22, continues each session, including on the first day. On the...

Leadership: Waking up to a thinner majority, the Senate majority leader suddenly finds the filibuster a threat to democracy. So he decides that the first legislative day will be the day the Senate stood still. Only in the Bible and Harry Reid's Senate can a day last more than 24 hours. As we predicted a week ago, the slightly less powerful majority leader, on the first legislative day in the 112th Congress, executed plans to make that "day" last until Jan. 25 so he can stage a legislative coup and neuter the filibuster rule that protects the right of the...

Senate is now debating changes to filibuster rule.

WASHINGTON —A radio reporter in the classic movie 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington' dramatically tells his listeners that filibuster action in the U.S. Senate is 'democracy's finest show.' That might have been true in director Frank Capra's world. But in today's ultra-partisan Washington, the show is in danger of being canceled, or at least cut short. A group of Senate Democrats frustrated by Republicans' success in using the filibuster to thwart President Barack Obama's agenda is pushing for new rules to limit the parliamentary tool, which enables a single senator to hold up a piece of legislation by talking on...

Al right.  That is not precisely the title of the latest headline at Roll Call, but it is close.  The actual headline reads, "Reid Set a Filibuster Record".  In other words, thanks to RINOs, Harry Reid became the most successful Majority Leader in terms of killing filibusters through cloture. Keep in mind that the Democrats had 60 seats only for a short time during the 111th congress.  Al Franken was sworn in as the 60th Democrat Senator on July 7, 2009, and Scott Brown was sworn in as the 41st Republican Senator on February 4, 2010.  If you factor in...

WE all have hopes for the New Year. Here’s one of mine: filibuster reform. It was around this time 36 years ago — during a different recession — that I was part of a bipartisan effort to reform Senate Rule 22, the cloture rule. At the time, 67 votes were needed to cut off debate and thus end a filibuster, and nothing was getting done. After long negotiations, a compromise lowered to 60 the cloture vote requirement on legislation and nominations. We hoped this moderate change would preserve debate and deliberation while avoiding paralysis, and for a while it did....

Their majority dwindling, some Senate Democrats are planning a showdown on the first day of the new Congress over limiting Republicans' ability to hold up legislation through filibusters. "We don't want to give the minority the ability to block the majority from governing," Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a leading proponent of filibuster reform, told ABC News. According to Udall, momentum is building behind his effort to amend Senate Rule XXII, which allows 3/5ths of the Senate -- or 60 members -- to invoke "cloture" and end debate. Failure to clear that 60-vote hurdle leaves a bill on the table, effectively...

At some point on January 5, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) will take the Senate floor and begin a process that he hopes will end in the successful use of the "Constitutional option" -- the prerogative of a majority of the Senate's members to rewrite its rules on the first day of a new Congress. He and his allies have been vocal about their plan. But the actual sequence of events that starts with him giving a speech, and ends with filibuster reform, is obscure, fragile, and extremely complicated. In fact, it's so involved that the "first day" of the 112th...

Back in 2005, when Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and presidency, they were contemplating a "nuclear option" to end the filibuster on judicial nominees.  We were all aghast at the unprecedented number of filibusters that were mounted by Democrats to block highly qualified nominees to Federal Appellate courts.  At the time, the ever perspicacious George Will warned conservatives of the counter-intuitive consequences of squelching the filibuster.  He wrote in the Washington Post on April 25, 2003: “The future will bring Democratic presidents and Senate majorities. How would you react were such a majority about to change Senate rules to prevent...

What we are witnessing today is a power grab to advance an ideology, pure and simple. A power grab by an arrogant, condescending group of individuals who do not wish to be restrained by the confines put in place by our Founding Fathers. Individuals who feel they are superior to the greatest collection of minds in the history of human kind.

The Constitution frequently gets lip service in Congress, but House Republicans next year will make sure it gets a lot more than that - the new rules the incoming majority party proposed this week call for a full reading of the country's founding document on the floor of the House on Jan. 6.The goal, backers said, is to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress - and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating."It stems from the debate that we've had for the last two years about things like the exercise of...

When the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, it was hailed as a means of doing away with the excesses of lame-duck sessions and making Congress more responsible to voters. Its authors hadn't counted on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.... One of the first orders of business in the new Congress should be to introduce an amendment to further compress the time between holding elections and implementing their results. The outgoing leadership's last, desperate rush to force through unpopular measures - after voters repudiated them at the ballot box - is symptomatic of the institutional...

The US Senate is reportedly one vote away from passing cloture for the so-called DREAM Act, which would allow a path towards citizenship for millions of illegals if the attend colleges or serve in the military. The bill passed the House during a late-night session last week with a vote of 216-198. It was then shelved by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after Republicans threatened to filibuster any legislation not related to the Bush tax cuts. It is believed the single vote belongs to Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown, who has disappointed many in the GOP with his RINO-like votes since...

Liberal organizers want to flood the Senate phone lines today in the run-up to a test vote this afternoon clearing the way for President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans. MoveOn alerted its members in an email on Monday asking them to call their senators and urge them not to vote for the measure, which would extend tax cuts for two years for every income bracket and reinstate the inheritance tax at 35% for estates larger than $5 million. -snip- The group is targeting Senate Democrats, whose opposition to the compromise would help bolster the negotiating position of their Democratic...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filibustered the tax compromise between President Obama and Senate Republicans for over eight hours yesterday afternoon. It was the longest Senate filibuster of the 21st century and the longest since New York Senator Al D'Amato's 15 hour speech in 1992. However, the Senator from Vermont didn't even come close to breaking the top five United States Senate filibusters of all time.

Ever wonder what diarrhea of the mouth is? Does this guy ever shut up?

Moments ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist from Vermont, stopped by the Senate press gallery unannounced to deliver red-faced invective trashing the proposed tax deal between the White House and the GOP, apparently doubling down on his earlier threat to filibuster the plan. He said he is willing to do “anything and everything” to defeat the current proposal — which he called a “moral outrage” — and prevent a tax-rate extension for upper-income earners, by filibuster if necessary. Sanders said he was going to find “a handful of Republicans” willing to reject the current deal (he didn’t say whom...

Many of us have been concerned that the START Treaty would weaken our national security, and recent revelations of previously undisclosed talks with Russia on missile defense and movement of Russian tactical nuclear warheads only raise more questions that must be answered. I’ve asked for the full negotiating records, as have been provided to the Senate on previous treaties, but the Obama administration has continually denied that request and promised that missile defense was never part of the negotiations with Russia. But we have now learned that the State Department did in fact meet with Russia to specifically discuss missile...

Now that the midterm elections are over and a lame duck session of Congress has convened, the Democrats in charge can take a deep breath, put aside all the campaign rhetoric and get back to doing what they do best: destroying jobs. Sitting on Harry Reid’s desk is a little-noticed economic hand grenade with its pin half-pulled called the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that has already passed the House and might well pass the Senate if Reid can put down a Republican filibuster. Dirty Harry has to be feeling lucky these days, having won reelection by a comfortable margin,...

So where do Republicans stand after the election? From where I’m sitting, in a fairly good place. If they had to win only one chamber, I’d rather them win the House. Obviously, the Senate would have just been the icing on the cake, but being in control of the Senate these days is not all it’s cracked up to be (as I’ll cover in a bit). Here’s a few reasons why I think the new power structure is good for them.

Thoughout the past 18 months of the Democrats total ownership of government, we heard a neverending chorus of complaining and hand-wringing over the issue of the fillibuster. The liberal media and the Democrats provided no shortage of complaints about the process and some even called for it's legal discontinuation. The GOP - aka, "The Party Of NO" as they were called - continually used the filibuster and other tactics to delay if not defeat Democrat plans. The aggressive plans of the Party to overhaul healthcare, nominate activist judges, extend spending programs such as unemployment and a jobs bill, and even...

As criticism mounts over legislative gridlock it appears the Senate is poised to filibuster legislation that would end filibustering. In the most impressive display of bipartisanship since the opposition to health care, Senate Republicans and Democrats are teaming up in an effort to stop the legislation dead in its tracks. Republican Senators complained, “We need the filibuster if we are to continuing campaigning as the party for smaller government and fiscal responsibility. Without it, there is no one to blame when we expand government and increase deficits. It also provides valuable face time for us to perform on our soap...

Conservatives often blame elected Republicans for not producing revolutionary changes when in power. This frustration is understandable, but it is also wrongheaded. No political party can make revolutionary changes in American government unless that party not only controls the House of Representatives and the White House, but also, critically, has a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Until 1919, debate in the Senate was unlimited. There was no Senate Rule which allowed for cloture, or limiting debate. A determined Senate minority could effectively stop any congressional bill, any presidential appointment (which required Senate confirmation), and any treaty. When Democrats have had...

Chuck Purgason began the filibuster at noon yesterday on the Monster of a "Tax Incentive" bill that would take 150 Million of Missouri taxpayer dollars and hand it over to Ford Motor Company. The battle was joined by Senators Bartle and Goodman and is still ongoing. Live Feed here: http://senate.mo.gov/ (click on Live Debate - Senate)

Chuck Purgason's one-man filibuster show. Big gamble he's taking here. On the line is 150 million dollars of Missouri taxpayer dollars. He's been going for more than 2 hours. Not sure how long he plans to keep it up... Link: http://www.kctv5.com/video/24248078/index.html More Info: http://www.examiner.com/a-2725379~Mo__senators_continue_to_block_vote_on_Ford_bill.html

It is a good rule of thumb not to speak ill of the dead. But what to do when a man is celebrated beyond the limits of decorum or common sense? Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate in American history, died Monday. It was truly a remarkable career. But what's more remarkable is how he has been lionized by the champions of liberalism. On Thursday, Byrd's colleagues took the unusual step of honoring him with a special service on the Senate floor, where he would lay in repose -- with some irony -- on the Lincoln Catafalque, the...

ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has provided some of the most contentious exchanges of the rather tame Elena Kagan confirmation hearings. He's raised questions about Kagan's generally liberal political beliefs, and contends that Kagan would usher in vast expansions of government power as a member of the Supreme Court. On ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today, Coburn ratcheted up his critique of Kagan, saying she hasn’t been as forthcoming about her views as she should be, and questioning her interpretation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause as well as her expressed willingness to follow court precedents. “I think...

"fair-minded Americans" should be disturbed... and rational people should be very afraid because, as The Times states, Kagan is "disrespectful toward existing law" (read: the Constitution). And that makes Kagan a very dangerous nominee... and, for that reason alone, the American people must work to ensure that the Senate doesn’t rubber-stamp her confirmation.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says "YEA". Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina says "NAY". The YEA's are ahead. We need to support the NAYS. the discussion is here: http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201007?pg=8&pm=2&fs=1#pg19 The voting link is at the right hand side of the page.

There seems to be one thing on which everyone can agree. From archconservative pundits to archliberal White House staffers responsible for Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, all agree that the test is whether she is in the “mainstream of current legal thought.” But it would seem to me that such a standard only makes sense if you approve of where the mainstream currently is. For instance, left-wing statists — who believe in almost unlimited powers of government, who heartily approve of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kelo v. New London (which authorized a city to take...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's efforts to win final approval of a historic financial regulatory reform bill looked more complicated on Saturday after a Republican senator threatened to oppose it. "I was surprised and extremely disappointed to hear that $18 billion in new assessments and fees were added in the wee hours of the morning by the conference committee," Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said. He issued the statement after negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives emerged from a marathon session early Friday morning with a final compromise on a bill that would bring about the most sweeping...

Top Republican Leaves Door Open to Potential Kagan Filibuster Washington, DC - The leading Republican in the Senate left the door open for a potential filibuster of pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. In a weekend interview with "Fox News Sunday" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the initial information on Kagan has been "quite troubling." http://www.LifeNews.com/nat6441.html

Great lecture tomorrow at Hillsdale College's First Principles on First Fridays event in Washington, D.C. with University of Nevada-Reno's Prof. John Marini. With public approval ratings of Congress at an all-time low, many people wonder if the institution is broken. Focus on the Senate filibuster or other procedural matters, however, obscures the legislative branch's systemic problems, which are tied less to procedure or party than to profligate disregard for constitutional restraint that is the heart of the administrative state. With attention to the real reasons why Congress is broken, then, this lecture will also outline what first steps can be...

According to statements from Sens. Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby, this is exactly what has happened. Sen. Dodd has assured Shelby that he will address a number of concerns Shelby expressed with respect to ending bailouts, but he will not address problems with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the proxy-access provisions or (the somewhat less problematic, in my view) derivatives rules. We will have to watch the bill closely to see what loopholes Dodd actually closes, but I would guess that, at the very least, he will insert language to reduce the FDIC's discretion along the lines of what the...