The Senate has voted to change its rules so that a simple majority is required to confirm judicial nominations and executive branch picks -- the so-called "nuclear option."
The final vote was 52-48. The previous threshold was 60 votes to bring such nominations to a final up-or-down vote.
"The threshold for cloture on nominations not including the Supreme Court, is now a majority," Sen Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate president pro tempore, declared after the vote.
Three Democrats voted with Republicans against the change: Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). Levin is a longtime senator; Manchin and Pryor come from red states.
To about 1840 or so the House also had a version of the filibuster. It wasnÂ’t quite the same as the Senate but by rule and decorum, one needed a super-majority to move bills through.
From then up to the 1890s there was a variant of this called the “disappearing quorum”: the House needed a super-majority to make a quorum, so the minority party if disciplined enough would refuse to answer whenever a quorum just happened to be called, causing everything to stop. Then House Speaker Reed (a Pub) said, “The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch”, and set about to eliminate this, and he did. The Democrats howled but the Pubs prevailed, and so now we have a modern House in which 218 yea votes makes things happen.
I shall suggest that it is time for the Senate filibuster to disappear completely.
Yes, I believe that major changes in our government should be done on a bipartisan basis: Social Security. Medicare. Civil Rights Bill. Decision to go to war in Iraq. And so on. Our countryÂ’s parties should agree on the big things.
But if the Democrats are going to behave like monkeys at a zoo then Speaker Reed is right: one party governs, the other opposes. And the party that is in power has the RESPONSIBILITY to govern wisely or else end up out of power.
The lack of a filibuster will hurt the next fourteen months. But the public (I predict) will see how the Democrats govern, and in a year the public shall vote. Eliminating the filibuster removes the one big excuse Harry Reid has had in his time as majority leader, that he couldnÂ’t get anything done because those eeeeeevil Rethuglicans wouldnÂ’t let him.
Okay Harry, letÂ’s see your real agenda. I think the American people will figure out what youÂ’re up to and will decide to oppose you, particularly if the Pubs are smart enough (and remember, weÂ’re called the Stupid Party for a reason) to hoist him on his petard next October.
Budget? No excuse now, they have to pass a budget. Raving red lunatics for the appeals courts? Make clear that theyÂ’re loonies. And so on.
How is it the Pubs can win the House and win most state district and senate races (the Pubs do hold a sizable majority in the state legislatures right now), and yet lose Senate races? Because Dingy Harry, Chuckles Schumer, and Dirty Dick Durbin have managed to keep power and avoid responsibility.
No longer. Now theyÂ’re responsible, 50% + 1.
I predict they shall be called on it in November 2014. |
|