{"id":27680,"date":"2017-04-04T05:45:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T09:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=27680"},"modified":"2017-04-03T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T20:30:20","slug":"democrats-will-filibuster-away-their-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/04\/democrats-will-filibuster-away-their-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats will filibuster away their power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Claude_Rains_and_James_Stewart_in_Mr._Smith_Goes_to_Washington_(1939)\"<\/a>The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend Neil Gorsuch\u00a0for the Supreme Court, so Democrats are planning to filibuster. \u00a0This will trigger the \u201cnuclear option\u201d of Republicans voting to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster when it comes to nominations like this.<\/p>\n

Thus the Democrats will \u201cmake a statement\u201d that will diminish their ability to stop nominations! \u00a0This is an example of the \u201cvirtue signalling\u201d that has become part of our culture. \u00a0The purpose is apparently for the liberal Senators to show how \u201cvirtuous\u201d they are to their liberal base. \u00a0But the gesture will just make them even more ineffectual.<\/p>\n

\n

In the meantime, as Democrats demonize the distinguished Judge Gorsuch, who models the ideal judicial temperament, Oklahoma Sen.\u00a0James\u00a0Lankford raises some questions.\u00a0From an editorial in the <\/a>Daily Oklahoman<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

In a recent floor speech, Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, deftly demonstrated that opposition has nothing to do with Gorsuch\u2019s qualifications. When Gorsuch was confirmed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006, Lankford noted, support was unanimous. \u201cHe was seen as a consistent, solid, mainstream, fair judge, which means Senator Joe Biden voted for him, Hillary Clinton voted for him, Chuck Schumer voted for him, Barack Obama voted for him in 2006,\u201d Lankford said. He argued there\u2019s nothing to suggest Gorsuch has \u201cleft the mainstream\u201d since that 2006 vote, noting the judge\u2019s opinions have drawn fewer dissents than any other judge on the 10th Circuit. It says much about Democrats\u2019 extreme partisanship that they must now tacitly suggest their most prominent liberal leaders are clueless in order to oppose Gorsuch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the jump, an article on the Gorsuch situation and an explanation of the filibuster and its history.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Elise Viebeck and Ed O\u2019Keefe, Democrats secure enough votes to block Gorsuch, setting stage for \u2018nuclear option \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Senate Democrats secured enough votes Monday to filibuster the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, increasing the likelihood that Republicans will enact a rules change to ensure his confirmation and pushing the battle into a climactic final act.<\/p>\n

Four more Senate Democrats confirmed that they will support a filibuster of Gorsuch\u2019s nomination, giving the minority party the requisite 41 votes to maintain their procedural roadblock under pressure from Republicans.<\/p>\n

The announcements came as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the high court nomination to the full Senate for debate, which is likely to begin Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

While the outcome of the panel\u2019s vote was not in doubt \u2014 Republicans hold a majority of seats on the committee, <\/b>and Gorsuch was approved on a party-line vote \u2014 the testy hearing foreshadowed what is likely to be a combative debate over the nomination on the Senate floor this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

By the way, the Senate some time ago adopted a rule allowing other business to be conducted during a filibuster. \u00a0What this did is eliminate the dramatic \u201chold the floor\u201d speeches, as in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead of actually holding unlimited debate on the floor of the Senate, requiring filibustering Senators to stay on their feet talking\u2013without food, sleep, or going to the bathroom\u2013the new rule simply acknowledges the filibuster declaration. \u00a0This prevents the bill or the nomination from going for a vote unless there is a \u201ccloture\u201d vote to shut off \u201cdebate,\u201d requiring 60 votes. \u00a0In effect, this has meant that the 100-member Senate requires not a majority vote but 60 votes to pass important measures.<\/p>\n

I say, bring back the actual stay-on-your-feet filibuster! \u00a0There would not be nearly so many filibusters if Senators had to sacrifice their physical comfort.<\/p>\n

There are still cases when Senators stage a marathon, in person, filibuster. \u00a0Usually this entails getting a series of like-minded colleagues to join in the speechifying, in a tag-team attempt to stall legislation and to make a point. \u00a0Rand Paul has done this on civil liberty issues.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Democrats invoked \u201cthe nuclear option\u201d against Republicans, eliminating the filibuster for executive appointments, except for the Supreme Court. \u00a0The coming second strike will remove that exemption. \u00a0(See this<\/a> for the history of the filibuster.)<\/p>\n

Photo of Jimmy Stewart and Claude Raines from \u201cMr. Smith Goes to Washington,\u201d by Columbia Pictures [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend Neil Gorsuch\u00a0for the Supreme Court, so Democrats are planning to filibuster. \u00a0This will trigger the \u201cnuclear option\u201d of Republicans voting to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster when it comes to nominations like this. Thus the Democrats will \u201cmake a statement\u201d that will diminish their ability to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36],"tags":[836,5175,5335],"class_list":["post-27680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-politics","tag-filibuster","tag-judge-neil-gorsuch","tag-united-states-senate"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocrats will filibuster away their power<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senate Democrats will filibuster the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, which will lead to their being unable to filibuster anybody.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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