Free Republic

There’s a sense of panic setting in among Congressional Democrats in the wake of resident Joe Biden’s inflammatory speech about passing the two currently pending bills allegedly aimed at securing “voting rights.” Over at The Hill, the pair of measures were described last night as being “on the brink of defeat.” But like a magician who remains confident that he still has a couple more rabbits stuffed in his hat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is cooking up a new plan to try to advance the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Unable to attract...

Former President Obama is throwing his support behind President Biden’s push to change the filibuster for voting rights legislation. Obama, in a Wednesday opinion piece for USA Today, said the filibuster is “the only thing standing in the way” of Congress passing federal voting rights reform.

Just heard on ABC radio. Democrats planning a Trojan Horse to pass the Voting Rights legislation by avoiding filibuster procedures. As best as I can explain it, Ds plan to remove a provision from an unrelated piece of legislation (NASA related, iirc) and insert voting rights legislation. The radio report said if the legislation originated in the Senate, the 60 vote threshold was unneeded and could presumably move to the house.

At a speech in Georgia yesterday, President Biden charged all U.S. Senators with deciding “where they stand, not just for the moment, but for the ages.” The Senate filibuster, which Biden defended passionately in 2005 and again last year, is now apparently a neo-segregationist atrocity because it stands in the way of the president’s legislative agenda. Biden wants federal power to veto election laws in certain states, because he is on the right side of history. Of course this means if you oppose him, you are on the wrong side. “At consequential moments in history, they present a choice,” he...

Stacey has a plan, and it’s only a surprise to people who haven’t paid attention. She plans to become the first Black woman governor in the United States next year. And then run for president in 2024 if Biden does not, or in 2028 if he does.” — Newsweek, November 2021 The quote comes from "an adviser who asked not to be identified to speak freely about her thinking." Fast-forward to Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Abrams's home turf of Georgia to push their "voting rights" legislation, which is already on life support. Democrats...

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is warning Democrats might try to change the filibuster rules to advance voting rights legislation, a video from over a decade ago shows the New York senator warning against eliminating the procedural hurdle. On Monday, the Nathan Brand, the Republican National Committee’s deputy communications director, 2005 video surfaced of Schumer warning against eliminating the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome and advance legislation. “The ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the Founding Fathers called the ‘cooling saucer of democracy’ into the rubber-stamp of dictatorship. We will not let them,”...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday threatened to essentially shut down a "post-nuclear Senate" as Democrats speed toward a potential vote on altering the Senate's 60-vote filibuster in the next week. "I think it's appropriate to ask: What would the Senate look like in a post-nuclear world?" McConnell said, referring to the "nuclear option" of creating a new Senate precedent with just 50 votes needed to allow passage of legislation.

resident Barack Obama argued in defense of the filibuster on the Senate floor in 2005 despite now referring to the Senate tactic as a “Jim Crow relic” in a comment that resident Joe Biden echoed on Thursday. "If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse," then-Sen. Obama stated in 2005, a clip of which has gone viral on social media this week. Obama argued that ending the filibuster would "change the rules in...

Senate Republicans are threatening they will attempt a takeover of the Senate agenda by forcing votes on issues ranging from the Keystone XL pipeline to abortion rules to a U.S-Mexico border wall if Democrats weaken the filibuster. Republicans are also looking at smaller bills such as a proposal to prohibit the administration from imposing a fracking ban by executive order, a prohibition on the IRS implementing new reporting on banks to disclose individuals’ banking activity and mandatory detention for illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes.

Democrats are dusting off a familiar strategy to advance key pieces of President Joe Biden's agenda through the evenly divided Senate over Republican objections. In doing so, they hope to pressure Republicans to finally support their effort to take up the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And Democrats' past success employing the strategy to compel Republicans to cooperate with them suggests that their plan could work again this time.Republicans have twice prevented the Senate from taking up the voting rights bill by filibustering it. The bill's supporters have called for changing the Senate rules to prevent a minority...

Sen. Joe Manchin is taking heat from all sides as he resists eliminating the last stalwart against the Democratic agenda, the filibuster, including some of the biggest names in America. Manchin has told colleagues his phone has been lighting up with calls in recent days, including from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Though two former presidents and every Democrat in the Senate couldn't budge the West Virginia senator, even TV host Oprah Winfrey phoned in to try to convince him to agree to filibuster reform, according to Politico. Moderate Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Angus...

In a Dear Colleague letter this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warns that if Republicans refuse to support the Democrats' unconstitutional efforts to nationalize elections, he will move to eliminate legislative checks and balances by blowing up the filibuster. "As former Senator Robert Byrd famously said, Senate Rules 'must be changed to reflect changed circumstances,'" Schumer argued. "Put more plainly by Senator Byrd, 'Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past.'" And by the "past," Schumer means only a couple of years ago, when he led a record 300-plus filibusters during Donald Trump's...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been the one to pretty much deliver the bad news to Democrats concerning their plan to nuke the filibuster. He’s already seen as public enemy number one on Build Back Better after he went on national television to announce he’s killing it because it’s an expensive communist venture. It’s a 50-50 Senate. I don’t get what Chuck is trying to do here. Is it to ward off a potential primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Maybe—but she’ll be coming after you no matter what, Chuck. That’s her character. Period. You could pass Build Back Better-plus, and...

A new year is here and Congress will no doubt be in a hurry to pass pivotal legislation in the early months of the year. Much of the summer and fall will be spent campaigning for the November elections. And, in the run-up to campaign season, congressional leadership will do everything in their power to protect vulnerable members from making tough votes. The window to get anything of significance done is already narrowing. For congressional Democrats – who hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, as well as the White House – the sting of defeat is still fresh...

Chuck Schumer, the Inspector Clouseau of Senate Majority Leaders in comparison to Mitch McConnell’s Sherlock Holmes, has decided to try to strong-arm Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema into dropping their opposition to killing the filibuster by making a big public show of it. Hey, that’s plan has worked great so far. I sure hope he succeeds – for once – for three reasons. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. As so often happens with the Dems, Napoleon’s injunction to never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake comes to mind. So does Br'er Rabbit’s plea to Br'er Fox not to...

Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) who has been considered a so-called moderate, on Monday also indicated he supports getting rid of the filibuster. He's running for the Senate to replace outgoing Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican.Republican opponent Jeff Bartos was among those who quickly picked up on Lamb's threat to get rid of the filibuster, and Lamb engaged right back.

The latest proclamation from King Joe runs counter to the buzz promoted by the media. Supposedly, Joe Manchin had returned to negotiations on Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, and might even have signaled a willingness to do a nuclear-option carve-out on the filibuster for the election-federalizing SB1.Not so fast, Manchin said a few minutes ago. First, no one’s changed positions at all on BBB and there haven’t been any new talks so far:

Democrats in Congress are conspiring and plotting to federalize elections to make it easier for them to retain control of the federal government. They are pushing unconstitutional legislation that violates the power of states to run elections. To do this, Democrats need to blow up the filibuster. This desperate act by Democrats is nothing more than an insurrection against federalism. Democrats see cratering poll numbers for President Biden and are in panic mode about the fall midterm elections. If Republicans want to protect the integrity of elections, they need to fight the Democratic plan to put unelected federal bureaucrats in...

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees

Democrats are barreling toward a showdown over voting rights and changes to the Senate rules, after months of growing frustration from within the caucus. The party is under pressure, from both outside groups and lawmakers, to pass federal election legislation as GOP-run state legislatures debate new voting rules and as the start of the 2022 midterm election is fast-approaching. After watching Senate Republicans block election and voting bills via the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is vowing to bring the fight to a head in January. “The Senate will...