Reid Changing Filibuster Rules

[BDBoop]

Interesting article.

The Real Roots of the Filibuster Crisis

We're about to have ourselves a little filibuster crisis, and the only surprising thing is that it took so long. We've now reached a point where Republicans no longer accept that Barack Obama has the right, as president of the United States, to fill judicial vacancies. Unlike in previous battles over judicial nominations, we're not talking about the nominees' qualifications or their ideological proclivities. It's merely a question of the president's constitutional privileges. Republicans don't think he has them. This is only the latest feature of a long descent for the GOP away from considering any Democratic president—but particularly this one—as a legitimate holder of the office to which he was elected.

There has never been a president, at least in our lifetimes, whose legitimacy was so frequently questioned in both word and deed by the opposition party and its adherents. Even today, many Republicans, including some members of Congress, refuse to believe that Obama was born in the United States. Right after he was re-elected, 49 percent of Republicans told pollsters they thought ACORN had stolen the election for Obama, a decline of only 3 points from the number that said so after the 2008 election, despite the fact that in the interim, ACORN had gone out of business. Think about that for a moment. How many times have you heard conservatives say that the Affordable Care Act was "rammed through" Congress, as though a year of debate and endless hearings and negotiations, followed by votes in both houses, followed by the president's signature, was somehow not a legitimate way to pass a law? In short, we've seen this again and again: it isn't just that Republicans consider Obama wrong about policy questions or object to the substance of one or another of his actions, it's as though they don't quite accept that he's the president, and everything he does carries for them the taint of illegitimacy.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Several times. He's such a pushover. It's only for confirmation of judges anyway and Democrats never hold up the process like that. It's ridiculous, he should have taken steps years ago with this bunch.

Now I'm understanding why the Republicans were kept in the house. Gee, could it have anything to do with Democrats in the Senate wanting to abuse the Democratic process?

Politics for dummies, Lesson One:

Never, ever make laws or rules your opponents can use against you.

I understand what you are trying to say but in this case I don't see it being a problem if by some miracle Republicans take the Senate back. Democrats don't operate that way. When was the last time you saw them not confirming judges in the kinds of numbers Republicans are doing it now?

3 in three weeks is simply blatant.

Do you really think the Democrats will play by their own rules? I have oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

 

[TemplarKormac]

As far as this whole thing Reid is doing:

Thomas Jefferson would be very displeased to know that elected officials are looking for ways to do away with the "majority rule, minority rights" concept of our political system right now. This can only lead to bad things for both sides. Harry Reid is nothing but a self serving sycophant who will do anything to bend, twist, mangle, mutilate, distort or otherwise break the rules in the Senate. He's doing this simply because the Obama agenda has ground to a complete halt. When in doubt, cheat.

 

[BDBoop]

“Reid has become personally invested in the idea that Dems have no choice other than to change the rules if the Senate is going to remain a viable and functioning institution,” the aide says. That’s a long journey from where Reid was only 10 months ago, when he agreed to a toothless filibuster reform deal out of a real reluctance to change the rules by simple majority. Asked to explain the evolution, the aide said: “It’s been a long process. But this is the only thing we can do to keep the Senate performing its basic duties.”

Asked if Reid would drop the threat to go nuclear if Republicans green-lighted one or two of Obama’s judicial nominations, the aide said: “I don’t think that’s going to fly.”

Reid has concluded Senate Republicans have no plausible way of retreating from the position they’ve adopted in this latest Senate rules standoff, the aide says. Republicans have argued that in pushing nominations, Obama is “packing” the court, and have insisted that Obama is trying to tilt the court’s ideological balance in a Democratic direction — which is to say that the Republican objection isn’t to the nominees Obama has chosen, but to the fact that he’s trying to nominate anyone at all.

And that's the point. They are just kneejerk saying no, and I can't think of any reason that that is reasonable and acceptable.

None.

Harry Reid is set to go nuclear

 

[Sarah G]

Interesting article.

The Real Roots of the Filibuster Crisis

We're about to have ourselves a little filibuster crisis, and the only surprising thing is that it took so long. We've now reached a point where Republicans no longer accept that Barack Obama has the right, as president of the United States, to fill judicial vacancies. Unlike in previous battles over judicial nominations, we're not talking about the nominees' qualifications or their ideological proclivities. It's merely a question of the president's constitutional privileges. Republicans don't think he has them. This is only the latest feature of a long descent for the GOP away from considering any Democratic president—but particularly this one—as a legitimate holder of the office to which he was elected.

There has never been a president, at least in our lifetimes, whose legitimacy was so frequently questioned in both word and deed by the opposition party and its adherents. Even today, many Republicans, including some members of Congress, refuse to believe that Obama was born in the United States. Right after he was re-elected, 49 percent of Republicans told pollsters they thought ACORN had stolen the election for Obama, a decline of only 3 points from the number that said so after the 2008 election, despite the fact that in the interim, ACORN had gone out of business. Think about that for a moment. How many times have you heard conservatives say that the Affordable Care Act was "rammed through" Congress, as though a year of debate and endless hearings and negotiations, followed by votes in both houses, followed by the president's signature, was somehow not a legitimate way to pass a law? In short, we've seen this again and again: it isn't just that Republicans consider Obama wrong about policy questions or object to the substance of one or another of his actions, it's as though they don't quite accept that he's the president, and everything he does carries for them the taint of illegitimacy.

I agree, they're trying to just delegitimize him. They want the election to never have happened. People have to begin seeing this at some point.

 

[TemplarKormac]

And to those folks accusing the Republicans of being 'the party of 'no'':

just who was it that kept blocking continuing resolutions from the House? Who was it that kept blocking bills to repeal Obamacare? Who was it tho continually blocked jobs legislation from the House?

 

[TemplarKormac]

I agree, they're trying to just delegitimize him. They want the election to never have happened. People have to begin seeing this at some point.

He's delegitimatized himself. What is with you thinking that everyone is out to get him or Obama? Does it occur to you that their downfall has been of their own doing and not of anyone else's? People will begin seeing at some point how fruitless it is to keep shielding politicians from accountability and actually do something about it. People such as you will want that never to happen.

 

[BDBoop]

Yup.

Further;

Senate Republicans: All Obama Judges Are Bad -- Daily Intelligencer

But the proposed nuclear-option remedy is less extreme than the power demanded by Senate Republicans. Some of them seem unaware of the full weight of what they’re demanding. "It would be really bad form," said Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, "if every time someone has concerns about nominees the nuclear option comes up, you might as well be at a 51-vote threshold." Of course Republicans don’t have “concerns” about these particular nominees. They have concerns about any Obama nominee for those vacancies at all.

Conservatives have accused Obama of “packing” the courts, yet the term applies to their own behavior. “Court-packing” dates back to Franklin Roosevelt, who, stymied by a conservative Supreme Court, proposed to increase its size to allow him to fill it with sympathetic jurists. Packing meant changing the court’s size in the middle of the game to benefit his agenda. Senate Republicans are doing the same thing through the opposite method: Rather than opportunistically increasing the size of the court to increase the president’s appointment influence, they are decreasing it to diminish it. Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme was rightly considered a constitutional affront. How is the Senate Republican gambit any different?

 

[TemplarKormac]

Yup.

Further;

Senate Republicans: All Obama Judges Are Bad -- Daily Intelligencer

But the proposed nuclear-option remedy is less extreme than the power demanded by Senate Republicans. Some of them seem unaware of the full weight of what they’re demanding. "It would be really bad form," said Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, "if every time someone has concerns about nominees the nuclear option comes up, you might as well be at a 51-vote threshold." Of course Republicans don’t have “concerns” about these particular nominees. They have concerns about any Obama nominee for those vacancies at all.

Conservatives have accused Obama of “packing” the courts, yet the term applies to their own behavior. “Court-packing” dates back to Franklin Roosevelt, who, stymied by a conservative Supreme Court, proposed to increase its size to allow him to fill it with sympathetic jurists. Packing meant changing the court’s size in the middle of the game to benefit his agenda. Senate Republicans are doing the same thing through the opposite method: Rather than opportunistically increasing the size of the court to increase the president’s appointment influence, they are decreasing it to diminish it. Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme was rightly considered a constitutional affront. How is the Senate Republican gambit any different?

Question though, does it still make it right for Obama to pack the courts? I mean, we do want justice and impartiality when the court interprets the Constitution, right? I'm thinking that the right to appoint judges should be taken from the president and given to congress. Congress would be given a list of candidates, and via process of elimination come to one single person for which they cast a final vote for, or against.

 

[Sarah G]

I agree, they're trying to just delegitimize him. They want the election to never have happened. People have to begin seeing this at some point.

He's delegitimatized himself. What is with you thinking that everyone is out to get him or Obama? Does it occur to you that their downfall has been of their own doing and not of anyone else's? People will begin seeing at some point how fruitless it is to keep shielding politicians from accountability and actually do something about it. People such as you will want that never to happen.

I said trying to delegitimize him. They haven't yet but it's hard to watch them focus on Obama rather than what we sent them there to do. They don't work, they strategize for their next campaigns.

I love my Senator and Congresswoman but can't stand that they won't or can't get their message out. There is so much chaos nobody can keep the issues straight anymore.

I must say that you for instance have said in the past that you are a moderate. When you post things like you are posting here, I just don't see it. It makes me not believe much of anything you post.

 

[Lumpy 1]

Harry Reid and several Democrats in the Senate are like spoiled childish bullies. They obviously have zero negotiation skills and refuse to take up worthy legislation coming from the House.

The nuclear option will not pass, Democrats are weakened, they need the Republicans to pull their chestnuts out of the fire and Harry is just pacifying the sniveling babies on the left...

 

[bigrebnc1775]

This is nothing different than what happen with obamacare. How a spending bill that originated in the senate became law of the land.

 

[Sarah G]

Harry Reid and several Democrats in the Senate are like spoiled childish bullies. They obviously have zero negotiation skills and refuse to take up worthy legislation coming from the House.

The nuclear option will not pass, Democrats are weakened, they need the Republicans to pull their chestnuts out of the fire and Harry is just pacifying the sniveling babies on the left...

Grow up Lumpy. I am complaining because Reid is allowing McConnell to run roughshod over a Democratically controlled Senate. He isn't bullying, quite the opposite.

 

[Lumpy 1]

Harry Reid and several Democrats in the Senate are like spoiled childish bullies. They obviously have zero negotiation skills and refuse to take up worthy legislation coming from the House.

The nuclear option will not pass, Democrats are weakened, they need the Republicans to pull their chestnuts out of the fire and Harry is just pacifying the sniveling babies on the left...

Grow up Lumpy. I am complaining because Reid is allowing McConnell to run roughshod over a Democratically controlled Senate. He isn't bullying, quite the opposite.

Okay, I'll grow up...

How many Democrat Senators are up for re-election and scared? Harry does what Obama tells him to do, Dem-O-Care is a nightmare for Democrats, frightened Democrat Senators are jumping ship on Obama and Harry stands in their way...Harry's now a wrinkled prick with no hope of success...was that adult enough..

 

[S.J.]

Be careful what you wish for, libs.

 

[Sarah G]

Harry Reid and several Democrats in the Senate are like spoiled childish bullies. They obviously have zero negotiation skills and refuse to take up worthy legislation coming from the House.

The nuclear option will not pass, Democrats are weakened, they need the Republicans to pull their chestnuts out of the fire and Harry is just pacifying the sniveling babies on the left...

Grow up Lumpy. I am complaining because Reid is allowing McConnell to run roughshod over a Democratically controlled Senate. He isn't bullying, quite the opposite.

Okay, I'll grow up...

How many Democrat Senators are up for re-election and scared? Harry does what Obama tells him to do, Dem-O-Care is a nightmare for Democrats, frightened Democrat Senators are jumping ship on Obama and Harry stands in their way...Harry's now a wrinkled prick with no hope of success...was that adult enough..

Wait, you think Reid can't get the votes for a rules change? I don't know where you get this stuff, if he gets moving, there will be a rules change and your threats about Democrats needing to use that particular filibuster is just wrong.

Democrats don't have a need to do this sort of thing. There's been a lot on the news about what percentage of confirmations Bush had as opposed to Obama. So stop with the threats, you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

 

[Two Thumbs]

can anyone really blame him for the "party of no" (hint- the party that couldn't win the Presidency or the senate ) simply blocking anything that moves for the past 4+ yrs? Sen. Reid is a statesman & a scholar

Reid threatens to go nuclear on filibuster reform | MSNBC

“I’m considering looking at the rules,” the Nevada Democrat told reporters on Tuesday. “The American people are sick of this. In the name of simple fairness, any president, not just President Obama, Democrat or Republican, needs to be able to have the team that he wants in place,” Reid added.

Reid’s threat comes as Senate Republicans blocked – for the third time in three weeks—Obama’s pick, Robert Wilkins, to be a judge on the powerful D.C. Court of Appeals. Reid had a solid majority, but due to GOP’s exploitation of the Senate’s arcane rules, Democrats still fell six votes short of ending debate on Wilkins’ nomination.

so b/c tyrants can't win by playing by the rules they will change them.

and you support this tyranny b/c it's your party.


Have you or any liberal, ever had a free thought?

Like; Holy shit, that faggot just said; "I'm going to take my ball and go home!!"

that's a hint

Only a child changes the rules to win

 

[Lumpy 1]

Grow up Lumpy. I am complaining because Reid is allowing McConnell to run roughshod over a Democratically controlled Senate. He isn't bullying, quite the opposite.

Okay, I'll grow up...

How many Democrat Senators are up for re-election and scared? Harry does what Obama tells him to do, Dem-O-Care is a nightmare for Democrats, frightened Democrat Senators are jumping ship on Obama and Harry stands in their way...Harry's now a wrinkled prick with no hope of success...was that adult enough..

Wait, you think Reid can't get the votes for a rules change? I don't know where you get this stuff, if he gets moving, there will be a rules change and your threats about Democrats needing to use that particular filibuster is just wrong.

Democrats don't have a need to do this sort of thing. There's been a lot on the news about what percentage of confirmations Bush had as opposed to Obama. So stop with the threats, you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

What Threats?.. It's really not my style.

Obama is filling the courts with plenty of leftists. There has to be some reasonable Constitutional judges..... they can't all be leftists and in many cases they're not even required..

 

[Sarah G]

Okay, I'll grow up...

How many Democrat Senators are up for re-election and scared? Harry does what Obama tells him to do, Dem-O-Care is a nightmare for Democrats, frightened Democrat Senators are jumping ship on Obama and Harry stands in their way...Harry's now a wrinkled prick with no hope of success...was that adult enough..

Wait, you think Reid can't get the votes for a rules change? I don't know where you get this stuff, if he gets moving, there will be a rules change and your threats about Democrats needing to use that particular filibuster is just wrong.

Democrats don't have a need to do this sort of thing. There's been a lot on the news about what percentage of confirmations Bush had as opposed to Obama. So stop with the threats, you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

What Threat?.. It's really not my style.

Obama is filling the courts with plenty of leftists. There has to be some reasonable judges..... they can't all be leftists and in many cases they're not even required..

The reason Reid needs to act now on this is because Republicans have denied 3 confirmation hearings in 3 weeks. Don't you think that is just a little irresponsible?

 

[Lumpy 1]

Wait, you think Reid can't get the votes for a rules change? I don't know where you get this stuff, if he gets moving, there will be a rules change and your threats about Democrats needing to use that particular filibuster is just wrong.

Democrats don't have a need to do this sort of thing. There's been a lot on the news about what percentage of confirmations Bush had as opposed to Obama. So stop with the threats, you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

What Threat?.. It's really not my style.

Obama is filling the courts with plenty of leftists. There has to be some reasonable judges..... they can't all be leftists and in many cases they're not even required..

The reason Reid needs to act now on this is because Republicans have denied 3 confirmation hearings in 3 weeks. Don't you think that is just a little irresponsible?

Obama has already stacked the courts in the leftist direction, be reasonable , a balanced Judiciary is best for America. Obama could consider less activist judges.