Blame Republicans, America

A roll call of the bills subject to conservative filibuster (Figure 1) from Campaign for America's Future

The chart says it all. Senate Republicans have broken the record of obstructing congressional legislation with more filibusters than any political party in U.S. history! If they continue at their present rate of obstructionism, they will "more than double the historical average of the last 35 years," according to a Campaign for America's Future report. Combined with Bush's veto power, Republicans have thwarted the will of the people and ground the 2006 election mandate to a screeching halt. "In just the first year of this two-year Congress, [Republican] use of the filibuster in the Senate topped the previous record, reached during the entire 107th Congress." Guess who was the minority during the 107th Congress? Once again, the Greedy Obstructionist Party.

When you hold a 49-seat minority out of 100 votes in the Senate, GOP dirty tricks to "block and blame" Democrats becomes the tool du jour in the filibuster -- a procedural maneuver that requires 60 votes to stop. With Big Media to back Republican partisan shenanigans -- gawd forbid if they were to explain what a fricking filibuster is to the American public -- they tow the party line blaming Democrats for "doing nothing."

The Campaign for America's Future report dated Dec. 18, 2007, [PDF] details the carnage. Republicans -- who previously squealed about Democrats preventing up or down votes on judicial nominations -- have hammered obstructionism into a dark art and deployed it like an anti-American bomb across the legislative branch. Think my rhetoric is hot? You're darn tootin'. I mad as hell at the political games the GOP is playing in setting up roadblocks against efforts to change the disastrous course we've embarked under Republican misleadership over six bloody years.

With emphasis:

The new report outlines every bill filibustered, vetoed or threatened to be vetoed by President Bush. Conservatives filibustered bills to end the occupation of Iraq, provide soldiers in Iraq rest time equal to their deployments, support renewable energy and grant residents of the District of Columbia representation in Congress. Today's record-breaker involved a $516 billion budget package passed by the House to fund the federal government in 2008. The conservative minority demanded $20 billion additional funding for the war and opposed House language to bring troops home, and threatened a filibuster to prevent the bill from getting an up or down vote.

"In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey. "Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda." ...

...Even pieces of legislation that have made it past the Senate filibuster blockade have been obstructed by President Bush. Last week the President vetoed for the second time a popular bill that would expand health coverage for 10 million American children. According to the Campaign for America's Future report, Bush has threatened to veto 84 bills and has vetoed six as of December 17. In contrast, during the period when the Republicans were in the congressional majority, Bush went the longest time without vetoing a bill since President Arthur Garfield.

These are dangerous times requiring unprecedented measures to break loose the death grip that Republicans have seized around the throat of American progress. With another year ahead -- they broke the record in just one session of Congress! -- Republican obstructionism with their stubborn, incompetent preznut promises more gridlock down the road.

Provided that Cheney can be contained, now is the time to exercise the nuclear option and shove the filibuster up the GOP bastard ass. With American lives and the livelihood of millions at stake, these auspicious days demand extraordinary action.

Are you listening Harry Reid? No more Mr. Nice Guy. Load the big gun for the sake of your country. You have the justification -- Republicans have repetitively abused the filibuster.

And here's the challenge to the Netroots. First, it's up to us -- You and me, Bubba -- to inform the electorate. The excellent work of Campaign for America's Future is to be praised and shared. We can also continue to pressure the media to report who is obstructing forward progress -- no small feat. Big Media is no friend to Democrats and the stenographers have their approved scripts to follow. Another thought: How many of us are willing to tune out and turn off TV and radio, take a bold step to hit them where it hurts, give up something that gets big ratings like the Super Bowl?

Second, if Reid gets gutsy and goes nuclear (Yeah, I know... what are the chances?), we must counterattack the media outlets that will reflexively cry foul, writing letters of complaint to editors, canceling subscriptions, boycotting the offending radio and TV stations, and if necessary, take the fight to the advertisers who are the life's blood of media revenues.

If you think what I've suggested goes too far, consider the ground we have to sprint in pushing back a rogue government into resembling one that works for all of us.

WTF else can we do but fight these bastards? Besides electing real Democrats?

[That's all. No more after the jump.]

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What Next? It All Depends On Harry

A cloture vote has been scheduled for 11:00 Eastern this morning. It is expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed to force an up or down vote. Donny Shaw at the OpenCongress-Congress Gossip Blog has examined what might happen next.

There are about 200 other amendments to the Department of Defense Authorization bill and Harry Reid could choose to move on to debating and voting on them. Or, he could hold another all-night debate ending in another cloture vote on the Levin-Reed amendment.

According to the Congressional Research Service Report all 100 Senators and their staffs are studying very closely,

There often has been more than one cloture vote on the same question. If and when the Senate rejects a cloture motion, a Senator then can file a second motion to invoke cloture on that question. In some cases, Senators even have anticipated that a cloture motion may fail, so they have filed a second motion before the Senate has voted on the first one. For example, one cloture motion may be presented on Monday and another on Tuesday. If the Senate rejects the first motion when it matures on Wednesday, the second motion will ripen for a vote on Thursday. (If the Senate agrees to the first motion, there is no need, of course, for it to act on the second.) There have been instances in which there have been even more cloture votes on the same question. During the 100th Congress (1987-1988), for example, there were eight cloture votes, all unsuccessful, in connection with a campaign finance reform bill.

In short, losing today's cloture vote is not necessarily the end of Levin-Reed. If as Bmaz suggests this is all political theater Harry will decide to abandon Levin-Reed and move forward to consider other amendments, which is exactly what the New York Times reported they would do yesterday. If Reid is really serious he can keep the all nighters going until the Republicans say uncle.

How much delay the Senate experiences depends in part on how much time the Senate, and especially its majority party leadership, is prepared to devote to the bill in question. If the bill is particularly important to the nation and to the majority party’s legislative agenda, for example, the majority leader may be willing to invest the days or even weeks that can be necessary to withstand and ultimately end a filibuster.

UP OR DOWN VOTE.

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So filibuster already

Dare I say it? Do I let my hopes out of the box?

Did we get Harry Reid’s damned attention when we got snippy and reminded him that we did not flunk Civics and know what the hell constitutes a filibuster, and what is just parliamentary masturbation masquerading as a filibuster?

Could be.

Think Progress is reporting that he is calling their bluff. If they don’t allow an up or down vote, on Tuesday night the cots come out:

Moments ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that in response to conservative obstructionism, he plans to force war supporters to physically remain in the Senate and filibuster Iraq withdrawal legislation.

Reid accused conservatives of “protecting the President rather than protecting our troops” by “denying us an up or down vote on the most important issue our country faces.” He said that if a vote on the Reed/Levin Iraq legislation is not allowed today or tomorrow, he will keep the Senate in session “straight through the night on Tuesday” and force a filibuster. From Reid’s speech:

Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end. They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops.

They are denying us an up or down — yes or no — vote on the most important issue our country faces.

I would like to inform the Republican leadership and all my colleagues that we have no intention of backing down.

If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday.

The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it.

Well Amen and Hallelujah! This fighting Dem has just one thing to say…What took you so f***ing long?

The always-excellent Bob Geiger has more.

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John Kerry Will Vote No on Supplemental

I just got an email from John Kerry. He is going to vote "NO" on the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. I guess he wants to get out of town, so voting "NO" is all he seems prepared to do. As predicted, no filibuster. Just give up the fight, vote a polite "no" and enjoy the weekend. Here is the entire email.

Hi Corpus Juris
The compromise supplemental will probably be presented to the Senate later today, but I wanted to drop a quick note to let all of you know my thoughts on it. I'm voting against it. I explain my feelings in a post I put up on the blog Daily Kos.

You can read it here.

Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

Let's be really clear about the Iraq vote coming down the pike in Congress this week.
I'm voting no on this bill. I'm tired of the false choices of Republicans and all the recycled spin of old battles and the political calculations that do nothing for our troops who bear the real costs of this war. Bottom line: we support the troops by getting the policy right, and this bill doesn't do that. I've said it again and again and I'm not about to stop: we need a deadline to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, not watered down benchmarks and blank check waivers for this President. We support the troops by funding the right mission, not with a White House that opposes a pay raise for our brave men and women in uniform. Do we need to bring out the hand puppets and make the case again?

Thanks for all of your help so far in this fight. I'm disappointed in the compromise bill, but I'm more convinced than ever that we'll win this fight.

John Kerry

Paid for by John Kerry for Senate.

If you live in Massachusetts you might want to write him. Here is an address--John Kerry for Senate, 129 Portland St. Suite 500 Boston, MA 02114-2014, U.S.A.

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When Does the Filibuster Start?

David Sirota asks Anyone Know When the Senate Filibuster Starts? WHERE'S THE BEEF? After all Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd are strongly denouncing the Harry Reid Surrender Bill (Er the War Funding Supplemental.) Surely the two of them could tag team an old Mr. Smith goes to Washington style filibuster to at least slow things down a bit. This morning Jerome Armstrong over at MyDD speculates that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will vote against the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. That makes 4 Senators to tag team a filibuster. I suspect that eventually all the Democratic Senators running for President will vote no on the Harry Reid Surrender Bill. That should be sufficient number of Senators to at least put up a fight. Jesus, if Senator Kyl could quietly stop the repeal of the Patriot Act provision at the center of the US Attorney firing scandal for months, then surly a bunch of big name senators wanting our votes and money to help them in their runs for President should be able to at least grab some headlines.

Any bets that they do it? With the exception of Russ Feingold, whose position is principled, the rest will moan and groan and vote a very polite and public "no" in hopes of keeping the support of the majority of folks who are fed up with the war, but in the end they won't do anything that might succeed or even call shame on their colleagues. Surrender monkeys are like that.

Oh you might want to follow that Sirota link. He has found and posted the old "Where's the Beef" commercial. A classic.

UPDATE: Keith Olbermann's Special Comment says it all. When does the filibuster start?

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