Subverting Majority Rule

The Republican obstruction campaign continues. Yesterday, the Republican minority in the Senate filibustered and blocked two measures that had majority support in the House, and bipartisan majority support in the Senate. Republicans continue to filibuster at a pace three times anything ever seen before, in a systematic effort to block popular reforms.

Fifty-six Senators, including six Republicans, supported the resolution offered by Sen. James Webb, D-Va., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to guarantee the soldiers fighting in Iraq adequate home rotations. This sensible bill -- vital to the mental health and readiness of the soldiers on the front line -- was blocked because the remaining Republican senators lined up with their leadership to filibuster it.

Similarly, 56 Senators, including six Republicans, supported the legislation introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Arlen Spector, R-Pa., to restore the fundamental right of court review for those detained under suspicion of terrorism. Once more the will of the bipartisan majority was subverted by the filibuster strategy of a partisan minority.

Republicans are filibustering so many bills that the press has begun to cover this extreme tactic as business as usual. The front-page Washington Post story covering the Webb proposal is headlined "Senate bill short of sixty votes needed." The article says the proposal "failed on a 56 to 44 vote, with 60 votes needed for passage." The article never tells the reader that the reason majority rule was frustrated was because of a Republican filibuster that requires 60 votes to overcome.

The New York Times coverage - "GOP minority prevails" is the subtitle -- was somewhat better. In its fourth paragraph, the article reports that the proposal "fell four votes short of the 60 needed to prevent a filibuster." In fact, the 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster, not prevent it. Both papers reported the filibuster correctly on the habeas corpus legislation.

It is vital that the press get this right -- and that the media expose the extraordinary scope of the Republican strategy of obstruction. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has announced that Republicans will filibuster every "controversial measure." They are making majority rule the exception rather than the routine in the Senate. Never has any party been so brazen or systematic in using the filibuster to block the majority.

A partisan minority of Senators has used the filibuster to block efforts to bring the troops home from Iraq, to frustrate passage of clean energy legislation, to block giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, and much more.

Their strategy is clear -- and very likely to work. The public expects the party in charge to get things done. Excuses are largely dismissed as political bickering. The Republican minority blocks popular reforms and then charges Democrats with running a "do-nothing Congress." For scandal-stained Republican legislators yoked to an unpopular president pursing an unpopular debacle in Iraq, this may be their best hope for survival.

It works, of course, only if the public doesn't learn of it. So how these stories are covered is critical. Citizens need to be told each time why the bipartisan majorities are frustrated, why the super-majority of 60 votes is needed, and who is responsible. Reporters should be reporting on the Republican strategy, and exposing the cynical calculation behind it.

These measures did not fail for lack of bipartisan, majority support. They have majority support in the House, the Senate and among the American people. They failed because they were blocked by a partisan minority pursing a partisan political strategy. The press should insure that Americans are told that story.

Comments

[rwoodsathome]

I'm sorry, in this country the term 'majority rule' equates to 'rule by mob'.

We are a democratic republic. We elect representatives by majority and that's where it ends.

The purpose of the Senate is to debate and slow the wheels of legislation, that's why the 60 vote threshold is there. The senate is the last bastion against 'mob rule'.

If the country was as solidly aligned as you claim the sixty votes would be there. Since they are not, you have more work to do to advance your side of the argument.

[realpolitic]

When Republicans were in control of the Congress and the Democrats filibustered a few of Bush's judicial appointments, the Republicans loudly demanding an up or down vote and said if not, they would change the rules of the Senate to no longer permit fillibusters. It was termed the "nuclear option." Now that they are in the minority, they use the fillibuster withour hesitation to block policies widely supported ny the American people. Were they wrong then or now?

[darker]

These congressional republicans should be THROWN OUT. They are not statesmen, not fit to rule. These MISFITS give the majority of Americans fits.

GET OUT OF GOVERNMENT, you preening, pandering, no-balls narcissists-- snd take you FREAKSHOW Bush-Cheney with you!

[baylaw73]

I'm tired, so I'll just put this question out there:
What's the difference when one party or another filibusters? I know the rate is three times higher now, but is there any non-partisan way to really say whehter a filibuster is "good/bad" or "right/wrong?"

[surfcitysteven]

First post here. I post often on right angle. Enemy territory there, I love it. As for the filibuster nonsense, the dems need to make the repubs actually go through an actual filibuster. Make em stand there all night talking themselves hoarse. They are lettting them off the hook by not making them actually filibuster.

[baylaw73]

Welcome steven. Good luck! Maybe you'll see me on right angle.

Regards,
me

[surfcitysteven]

Love to see you there baylaw. There are a few progressives there duking it out, but of course we are outnumbered. They mention "huffpo" occasionally. They hate it.

[metsfan1]

AMEN! I have been trying to e-mail this to CNN, etc. but it won't go.

[mgloraine]

The obstructionists need to be named and loudly heralded as individuals who are preventing these crucial bills from going through. At the moment, that info is not obvious, and most people won't go look it up. Even this article, which describes the problem well enough, doesn't name any names.

Senators like Dodd and Leahy who are being thwarted by this tactic need to make public statements at press conferences naming the names of the "Freedom Haters" so that the corporate media outlets find it difficult to ignore. They need to be exposed as indifferent to human life and motivated by greed, and listed in the Freedom Haters' Hall of Shame.

America needs to hear every night the names of the Senators who are happy to throw away the lives of American troops for some short-term partisan advantage in Congress. It is a clear demonstration of the true value these Republicans place on the lives of our own citizens and people everywhere - none whatsoever.

[GenericBlogger]

Robert Borosage writes "For scandal-stained Republican legislators yoked to an unpopular president pursing an unpopular debacle in Iraq, this may be their best hope for survival. It works, of course, only if the public doesn't learn of it."

The last sentence should be motivating words of the Democratic candidates. An effort to change the balance of power in the Senate is crucial. I believe that presidential and other candidates must put out the word that the people must take the Senate away from the Republicans. Otherwise after 2008, we will have four, count them, four more years of gridlock and Republican agenda domination regardless of who will be in the White House.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I think the GOP's going to 'burn in' along with what's left of their credibility...change is good...

[Annabanana]

I would LOVE to watch the real thing.. An actual flesh and blood filibuster on C-Span! Wouldn't it be fun to watch some swooning obstructionist reading the phone book and showing America how much they want to KEEP THIS WAR GOING!

[researcher]

Both parties corrupt with imperialism and Iraqi blood and lobbyists money.

Americans give up your love affair with the two party system or become a third world country like Mexico.

Then we can send our poor and uneducated Americans to Canada.

Also hang on to your media driven capitalism ideologies, as the rich get richer and the naïve and brainwashed middle class sinks into oblivion.

[dcpoff]

I also agree, it seems like pro wrestling to me and has for a long time.

[Rrhain]

Umm, if only six Republicans supported the bill, then it doesn't have "bipartisan support."

[hugs4u]

Remember a couple of years ago when the democrats were filibustering and the repukeicans didnt like it. they was going to pull some tactic like a nuclear deal or whatever to stop democrats from messing with their judges appointments.
The democrats should take a page out of the repukican play book and turn it around now and use it against the repukeican to stop the war for oil and bring the troops home.

[Mark701]

Aren't these the same guys who threatened the "nuclear option" to do away with fillibusters?? I guess thats when they felt the Republicans would have majority rule for a thousand years. My, how times have changed.

[pfm1483]

I seem to remember that the Dem's used the fillbuster to keep the appointees of Bush from getting an up or down vote. The ones that were so far right that they may take some of our freedoms away, like privicy. Took the rubber stamp away from his cronies. I don't recall every piece of legislation needing a 60 vote majority to get it to a vote.