Robert Byrd: Make Them Filibuster

Listen up, Democrats. A 92-year-old man just told you to make this process strenuous.

KT, you really should trademark your Make Them Filibuster™ (I wonder if Maria Bartiromo really tried to trademark Money Honey™ but I digress). Are you and Jay there at the Senate NOW? I asked Jay earlier if the D’s are seriously planning for a real filibuster: roll calls, sleeping gear, the works.
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This is reading tea leaves (which I suck at, see figure skating) but might this be the first real fili.? Or are R’s (try saying that fast) pressuring Bunning to back down? Or do they want this fight? (…like filibustering this issue will win over unemployed voters, but I digress again.) Thanks for your thoughts and great work on this MTF™ issue, KT.

Have a suggestion…
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Next Rep luncheon, slip some laxatives into the cold cuts, then shut off the toilets and lock the doors to the Chamber.
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Voila! Shortest fillibuster on record. Just don’t be standing in front of the exits when the call to recess is made.

That’s a brilliant idea! Let’s ask lovely KT: can Biden, Reid, and the Sergeant at Arms literally lock the doors and enforce a No Potty Breaks™ rule?

NEW
from LIFE’n'TIMEs.
ALL (xx) HOURS
……of the…….
Entire Filibuster!
on seven DVD discs
(just 39.95 now till then)

Add another requirement to the “No Potty Rule”:
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Anyone who “tears up” while speaking has to relinquish the floor (or clean it up afterwards).
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And no crossing of legs allowed…

KT, you really should trademark your Make Them Filibuster™
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Agreed. But I would like it noted for the record that I hold the trademark on the idea of trademarking Make Them Filibuster™
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I’ll grant you an exemption on the fees, deconstructiva, but only because you’re helping the cause.

I saw that turd Mitch McConnell on TV repeatedly misrepresenting Sen.Byrd’s position on healthcare reform, and stating that Sen.Byrd was not for using reconciliation to pass the FIXES to the healthcare bill.

I kept wondering why Candy Crowley, who was interviewing McConnel, didn’t just tell him to knock it off. Sen.Byrd’s opinion will be obvious for everyone to see when he votes on the bill in the Senate. CNN viewers don’t need lyin’ Mitch to misrepresent what Sen.Byrd thinks.

Candy Crowley is conservative from my perceptions over the years. She isn’t Fox lunatic, but very GOP leaning.

Karen a real filibuster will not happen. Both sides are sooks. I think they just came to agreement on Bunning.
The Republicans did not want to come out from behind Bunning’s skirts, and the Democrats caved in from making him with draw.

Candy’s job os to report the news and let us make up our own minds. I heard McConnell and Lamarr Alexander make the same claim. It really surprised me, but no one has called them on this lie. If Byrd is saying, “Make them fillibuster,” this isn’t a misrepresentation. It’s an out and out lie. CNN should have called them on it. We have this wall to wall news coverage that is giving us very little real news.
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Its already over. Bunning has given up.
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Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) Tuesday night abandoned his one-man filibuster of a one-month extension to unemployment benefits and other programs.

In the end Bunning agreed to a deal allowing him one vote on an amendment to pay for the bill’s $10 billion cost. That proposal was offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last Thursday at the start of his filibuster, but Bunning rejected it because he feared his amendment would not pass.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/bunning-blocks-jobless-be_n_482291.html

Jay’s latest tweet says that Bunning caved. Too bad. Hang in there, KT. You’ll see a real filibuster. I’m still betting it will be on finance reform.

I’m beginning to warm up to the idea of a filibuster on the democrat’s version of HCR.
It would be a good example of how our founding fathers created a democracy for us that allows the minority in the senate to protect the rights of the majority of the American citizens. The founding fathers knew what they were doing. That’s why they set up a two house system of government so that a party with a temporary majority in congress would have to make sure a new bill was truly in the best interest of the American citizens.
These guys were really smart.

I posted this at Kevin Drum’s blog but I want to post it here as well because I believe that this business with the filibuster is potentially a defining moment for both the Obama presidency and the Democratic Party. My personal suspicion is that Obama and Reid will take this as another opportunity to show themselves as “adults” who are “reaching out” to Republicans. They will offer some kind of face-saving gesture to Bunning. They will do what they’ve always done. They will compromise. But, in my opinion, this would be a grave, perhaps fatal error. I believe that any compromise with Bunning is fraught with great danger for the Democrats.

I believe that Bunning has really laid down a very serious challenge to President Obama and the Democratic Party. Metaphorically speaking, Bunning quite possibly has taken the Republican Party across the Rubicon. Make no mistake, if walks away with anything at all by way of a compromise then the Democrats will look hopelessly weak and I believe they will be in great jeopardy in the 2010-midterm elections and beyond.
Everything depends on whether President Obama and the Democrats walk away with a total victory, which I would define as Bunning being forced to abandon his filibuster and lift his holds. And they must not give him anything in return. Nothing. Anything less than that will surely be a Pyrrhic victory.

There is only one way for the Democrats to avoid disaster in the next two election cycles. They have to break Bunning. Go after him tooth and nail. Day and night. Make him a national laughingstock. Really humiliate him. Kill all his legislative pork and put so much stink on him that no lobbying firm or industry association will touch him once he’s gone from the Senate. If they are able to do this, to make an example of him—-demonstrating iron discipline, total ruthlessness and a willingness to take every opportunity to single out weak Republicans for the same treatment—there is a very good chance that they can start to push their legislative priorities. Legislative accomplishments are the only hope for Democrats if they wish to avoid disaster in the years to come. I believe that the people will pleased that the Democrats are solving the nation’s problems, getting things done and fighting for their beliefs. This is the key—not only must they break Bunning they need to explain what they stand for as a party and show that they are prepared to take risks for those beliefs.

Before the election and also during Obama’s first few months in office, we kept hearing about the “Chicago way”. That everything would be okay because Obama knew how to fight “the Chicago way”. Thus far, with the exception of some gratuitous hippie-punching, that much vaunted approach hasn’t been in evidence. Now, maybe this could be Obama’s moment to turn everything around—to emerge as a bold and resolute leader—but only if he’s prepared to do it the Chicago way. Maybe he should check out Sean Connery’s really good advise. It’s on You Tube and well worth watching. Frankly, I think he needs to watch it and take it to heart because heading that advise about how to fight Republicans is his only hope of rescuing what’s left of his presidency.

As long as Obama’s watching You Tube, and before he starts thinking about how to “reach out” to Bunning, he might want to consider something the Al Capone character said in that movie that is as true in politics as it is in crime-fighting: “When you got an all-out prizefight, you wait until the fight is over, one guy is left standing. That’s how you know who won”. Figuratively speaking, either Obama and Reid will put Bunning’s head on a pike outside the Capital Building or they are finished.

You seriously have no clue what the fu@k you are talking about. Our founding fathers did not create a democray. Our founding fathers created a republic. A democracy does not protect the minority rights.

Mitch, you’re a little late. Bunning folded like a cheap suit. All he got in “compromise” was the same meaningless offer Reid gave him Friday – a vote on his amendments that won’t pass. But he sure gave the DSC some great material for the fall.

Way to misrepresent the founding fathers. The filibuster is a Senate rule. It is not mentioned in the constitution and was rarely used by the Senate until recent times where it has been abused greatly.
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The founding fathers also called for a super-majority in the Senate in regard to a few specific issues, (impeachment, amending the constitution) not a cloture vote.

A journalists job IS NOT to report what “both sides” say and shrug. It’s to hold everybody accountable.

“…so that a party with a temporary majority in congress would have to make sure a new bill was truly in the best interest of the American citizens.”
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Seriously? First, every majority is temporary. Second, how exactly do they “make sure a new bill was truly in the best interest of the American citizens“? Legislation is passed by both parties that is not in the best interests of Americans all the time. WTF are you watching?

“I kept wondering why Candy Crowley, who was interviewing McConnel, didn’t just tell him to knock it off.”

What, you want her to commit journalism?

J. Fred Muggs could stand in front of a politician and hold a microphone. He’s probably ask better questions.

I was hoping that Bunning would hold and with his attituide and position, the wars would be over since we don’t have the money for them either.

Or, we could have taken the money Bunning insists be paid for out of Defense or even the KY part of the highway bill.

No big-girl panties for Bunning.

Tasers.
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Does the current Senate sergeant-at-arms have a Taser?
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Just askin’…

billiecat,

Maybe. Maybe not. Don’t forget, he’s still got holds on every single appointee. That doesn’t seem to be covered by the deal and if the Democrats don’t resolve that without paying him off, my analysis stands. More importantly, he still got something and neither he nor his party paid any price. Sure, neither side pushed it to a showdown this time. In the end, though, I think the Republicans will be seen to have come out ahead. They reinforced the impression that Democrats are aways weak, always will to compromise, never willing or able to make their adversaries pay a price.

The main point, though, is that Democrats have, once again, failed to seize the main chance. The Republicans obviously did not plan this. Bunning was clearly a loose cannon enacting his own “Charge of the Light Brigade” with perhaps a similarly disastrous result for his party. There was never a more unpopular, unjustified use of Senatorial power. This was the quite possibly the most absurd filibuster in history. The Democrats had a clear and powerful case to take to the people. This was the moment to force a showdown. They should have seized it. It may not come again.

And for once Bunning was right. His amendment failed.

The journalist’s job also isn’t to allow (or worse,parrot) an interested party’s talking points without testing their accuracy. Crowley’s just about the worst at Time’s cable news affiliate.

to late and this senator just pointed out what a bunch of hypocrites those that signed the pay as you go bill are, he has gained respect of even those on unemployment with his argument that the stimulus money should be used to pay for this bill as well it should.. the Democrats are saving the money for the fall to buy votes we know that but the people are not mad at the Republicans they are mad at the Democrats.. and now the DEMOCRATS are having their hypocritical hung out on a fence post, as well as the hypocritical Republicans who are trying to shame him.. his point was made score one.. heck even my sister who’s a stanch Democrat applauded this move and agreed 100% about the stimulus money..

What is wrong with the left over stimulus money?? it belongs to the people give it to them.. at least while no jobs will still have been created at least some people would get a pay day..

“A journalists job IS NOT to report what “both sides” say and shrug. It’s to hold everybody accountable.”
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You can’t read. I didn’t say a journal’s job was to “report what both sides say and shrug. I said it was to report the news. That includes reporting known inaccuracies and querying the senators on these inaccuracies. In doing so, the journalist give us, the public, the tools to hold everyone accountable.

gysgt,
You are such a sweet talker. I’m sure your mother is very proud of you.
Sane people debate with ideas. Insane people just use 4 letter words which fit well with their limited vocabulary and intelligence

diecash,
You should read Senator Byrd’s views on why the filibuster in critically important in our Democracy. Yes I still call it our Democracy.

lcky9,
Good Post,
You comments make a lot of sense to those who have logical minds.
The democrats had hoped to use this as an issue but it has backfired on them. They will have few limbs to hang on to in November.