filibuster

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Reid Compares Health-Reform Opponents to Segregationists

... to predictably furious Republican reaction

(Newser) - Not that the health-reform debate needed more fuel for its rancorous fire, but Democrat Harry Reid tossed some on today anyway, comparing conservatives who would block the current measure to those who tried to stop the emancipation of slaves and universal suffrage. The GOP reaction was swift and angry, with...

GOP Traffic-Jam Ploy Is Snarling Senate

 GOP Traffic-Jam Ploy 
 Is Snarling Senate 
OPINION
Nov 19, 2009 9:43 AM CST

GOP Traffic-Jam Ploy Is Snarling Senate

Stalling tactics are making Democrats turn on each other

(Newser) - Senate Democrats are starting to turn on each other like angry drivers stuck in rush-hour traffic thanks to Republican obstructionism, writes EJ Dionne. Republican senators are eating every word they once said against filibusterism and are stalling even legislation that they support in a Machiavellian effort to keep the Democrats...

Call Lieberman's Bluff&mdash;Make Him Filibuster
Call Lieberman's Bluff—Make Him Filibuster
opinion
Nov 13, 2009 2:29 PM CST

Call Lieberman's Bluff—Make Him Filibuster

Senate rules make delay tactic too easy for fence-sitters

(Newser) - The filibuster is supposed to be a last resort. It allows the Senate minority, when it's willing to engage in endless debate—at the cost of holding up the chamber’s other business—to challenge legislation. But today, senators need only signal their intention to filibuster to stall a bill,...

Why the Senate Health Bill Will Move at a Crawl
Why the Senate Health Bill Will Move at a Crawl
ANALYSIS
Nov 12, 2009 4:55 AM CST

Why the Senate Health Bill Will Move at a Crawl

Dems will be lucky to get it through before xmas

(Newser) - The House version of the health bill galloped from introduction to passage in just 10 days, but the Senate's version won't be through until Christmas at the earliest. Suzy Khimm at the New Republic explains the reasons for the snail's pace.
  • The Senate has to vote on a “motion
...

Dems Should Embrace a Health Care Filibuster
Dems Should Embrace a Health Care Filibuster
Steven Pearlstein
Nov 11, 2009 1:07 PM CST

Dems Should Embrace a Health Care Filibuster

Open, Senate debate is preferable to backroom negotiations

(Newser) - The Senate is broken, writes Steven Pearlstein , its members so mired in dysfunction they don’t even realize how undemocratic current legislative practice is. The mere threat of a filibuster is enough to kill a bill, a fact that "violates the letter and spirit of the US Constitution."...

Lieberman Won't Sink Health Reform: Reid
 Lieberman Won't Sink 
 Health Reform: Reid 
DC GOSSIP
Nov 3, 2009 8:43 AM CST

Lieberman Won't Sink Health Reform: Reid

Indy senator promises he'll vote with Dems to end filibuster

(Newser) - Forget all the grandstanding about joining a GOP filibuster of health care reform if it contains any kind of public option: Sen. Joe Lieberman won't do it, Harry Reid tells liberal interest groups, who tell the Hill . He has a deal with the Connecticut Independent, the majority leader claims. Lieberman...

Lieberman's Name Ain't Benedict
Lieberman's 
Name Ain't 
Benedict 
Meghan McCain
Nov 2, 2009 1:54 PM CST

Lieberman's Name Ain't Benedict

We need more pols who cross party lines, says maverick junior

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman’s taking a lot of heat for saying he’ll join a GOP filibuster of the health care bill, but Meghan McCain thinks it’s the kind of courageous stand we need more of in politics. “It’s no secret I have an aversion to partisan politics...

Lieberman Threatens Filibuster Over Public Option

Independent's warning is bad news for Harry Reid

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman doesn't want a public option, and he warned today that he would join a Republican filibuster to try to prevent one from becoming law. The statement by the Democrat-turned-independent is bad news for Harry Reid's prospects of getting 60 votes in the Senate. Lieberman said he told Reid...

GOP Plans Stall Tactics for Health Bill Fight

Opponents hope long debate will force voters to 'understand this thing'

(Newser) - Lacking the votes for a filibuster and increasingly resigned to the fact that Democrats will stand united, GOP senators have a novel strategy to stall the health care reform bill: They’re going to stall it however they can. The Democratic plan “is inconsistent with the American people,”...

Only the President Can Save the Public Option

Reid, Obama will decide what gets voted on in the Senate

(Newser) - Pretty soon, Barack Obama is going to have to step in and referee the fight over the public option. No matter what the squabbling Senate Finance Committee winds up agreeing on, it’ll be Obama, together with Harry Reid, who decides what the Senate ultimately votes on, and how that...

Harkin: I've Got Votes to Pass Public Option

Democrats have votes to break filibuster, pass bill, he says

(Newser) - Sen. Tom Harkin sees no good reason Democrats can’t pass a health care bill that includes a public option. “I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats—maybe approaching 50—support a public option,” the newly minted Health, Education, Labor and Pensions chairman said today....

Franken Victory Could be Nightmare for Harry Reid

Majority leader faces 'a lot more pressure'

(Newser) - Al Franken brings Harry Reid a potential extra vote—but he also brings the Senate majority leader a massive headache, Politico reports. “What’s really changed for us?” says a leadership aide. “Nothing, really. Except there’s a lot more pressure.” That may be an understatement: Democrats...

Chill Out, Democrats; 60 Votes Means Bupkis
Chill Out, Democrats;
60 Votes Means Bupkis
Analysis
Jul 1, 2009 9:45 AM CDT

Chill Out, Democrats; 60 Votes Means Bupkis

(Newser) - Al Franken is a senator at last, giving the Democrats their first 60-vote supermajority in 30 years. But that might not mean much, writes David Lightman of McClatchy Newspapers. Two of those votes belong to seriously ill senators, and another two are merely semi-reliable independents. Add in the disparate local...

Franken: I Can't Wait to Start Work

Senator-elect stresses loyalty to state, downplays Dem. supermajority

(Newser) - Al Franken said he was “thrilled and honored by the faith Minnesotans placed in me” after the state Supreme Court declared him the winner of the Senate recount, CNN reports. "I'm so excited to finally be able to get to work " said Franken, who added that he...

Coleman Concedes to Franken
 Coleman Concedes to Franken 
updated
Jun 30, 2009 3:16 PM CDT

Coleman Concedes to Franken

(Newser) - Norm Coleman isn't going to drag out Minnesota's Senate fight any longer. Coleman conceded the race to Al Franken today, hours after the state's Supreme Court decreed that Democrat Franken was the rightful winner of November's election, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Further litigation damages the unity of our...

Undivided Govt. Means Real Change; Hope We're Ready

If Dems get 60 seats, it will seem almost 'unnatural'

(Newser) - With Democrats seemingly about to take a filibuster-proof Senate majority, the US is finally going to see a government able to carry out campaign promises—which seems “almost unnatural” after ages of gridlock, writes Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post. “High-church moderates” claim a balance of power is...

Specter: I'll Filibuster the Dems If Needed

Former Republican says GOP let him down

(Newser) - Arlen Specter may be a Democrat now, but the erstwhile Republican senator says he’s not afraid to use the F-word: filibuster, Politico reports. Specter told NBC’s Meet the Press he hasn’t promised to be “a loyal Democrat” and made the switch after realizing through “polls...

Specter Defects to Democrats
 Specter Defects to Democrats 
Apr 28, 2009 11:38 AM CDT

Specter Defects to Democrats

(Newser) - Arlen Specter is jumping to the Democrats, leaving the party excruciatingly close to a filibuster-proof Senate majority, reports Politico. Sources say VP Joe Biden was key to the effort to recruit the Pennsylvania senator. “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party...

Dems Fast-Track Health Care Overhaul

Filibuster-proof tactic likely to enrage GOP

(Newser) - Democratic leaders in Congress have agreed to adopt a filibuster-proof tactic to get President Obama's health care bill passed before the year is out, reports the New York Times. The tactic—known as "budget reconciliation"—will let the bill pass the Senate with a simple majority instead of...

Senate Dems Are Tanking the Party... Again
Senate Dems Are Tanking
the Party... Again
OPINION
Mar 30, 2009 1:06 PM CDT

Senate Dems Are Tanking the Party... Again

Why the left can't seem to govern

(Newser) - Congressional Democrats killed Bill Clinton’s agenda, and Jimmy Carter’s agenda, and it looks like they’re gunning for Barack Obama’s, too, writes Jonathan Chait in the New Republic. George Bush didn’t win the popular vote and had just 50 GOP Senators, but was still able to...

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