Repubs Show Democrats How A Filibuster Works

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

They just shut down debate, and prevented the Levin-Warner bill from being brought to the floor for a vote.

The vote was almost entirely along party lines.

49 in favor of allowing the vote
47 for Filibustering

Reid had to cross over at the end and vote for the Filibuster. Procedural reasons for doing so. Not sure if any other Dems voted for the filibuster, or whether any repubs voted against one.

[global1]

1. And How Did The Repugs Shut Down The Dems When The Dems....

wanted to filibuster back when they were in control? Why didn't the Dems use the same tactics?

[MzNov]

3. Does the word "spineless" come to mind?

[redqueen]

7. They wanted to "keep the powder dry"...

i.e. they were either cowards or complicit

[ikojo]

49. Both because both parties

drink from the same kool aid cup

[joemurphy]

22. Because the Repubs threatened "to go nuclear"

by passing rules to eliminate the filibuster. Where were the "Gang of 14" on this?

[joemurphy]

2. Betrayal....Warner and Hagel voting against cloture.

We needed 60 votes and were 10 short. Thus, a swing of 5 votes was needed.

Warner
Hagel
Snow
Specter
Lieberman


All voted to filibuster and against cloture. Sickening.

[Meshuga]

They say we have the senate

Lieberman votes with the Republicans for crying out loud! We don't have both houses!

[redqueen]

9. Nobody who knows what's going on says that.

Dems are nearly as corporatized as repukes.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Shows they don't really want out of the war

and that they can't be trusted. We are in for two more years of hellish nightmare. I feel for our troops in harm's way, on an cowardly egotist's errand. (That cowardly egotist being Bush, of course)

[Roxy66]

4. Why doesnt the media call it a fillibuster!!!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

38. Because it isn't.

Is that really so hard to understand?

[doublethink]

5. Grassley speaking now on 'tax gap' and min. wage bill rehashing some b.s.

bla bla bla .... like I just said in another thread guess that little war over in Iraq isn't worth even discussing. Criminal. How many more lives will be lost from this point forward? Criminal. Just Criminal .... if I hear Grassley say 'tax gap' one more time! How bout Credibility Gap! Reality Gap! sigh ...... Peace.

[Horse with no Name]

8. Explain the procedural reasons for crossing over

I don't understand.
I also don't understand...at this point...why LIEberman is even given a voice as a Democrat when it is blatantly obvious where his loyalties lie.

[Pirate Smile]

12. It is so Reid could bring it back up for a vote if he chose to, otherwise

he couldn't.

[Hepburn]

13. Thank you ~~ I did not know this. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

28. Thank you. n/t

[MiniMe]

20. Not sure exactly what the procedure is, but if you vote "no" you can bring it up again

LIEberman is scum, there is no doubt about it. He has gone back on almost campaign promise he made. However, he does vote with the dems on almost everything else other than the war.

I expected it from Lieberman, the ones that surprise me are Warner and Hagel. For God's sake, it is Warner's resolution, and he is voting against cloture on it.

[Igel]

37. "Move to reconsider".

At least that's what it's called in Robert's.

Must be on winning side in the vote to move for reconsideration, and you must be able to show that conditions have changed such that it merits reconsideration and will probably alter how people voted. (Robert's specifically says "you've convinced enough people to vote" doesn't count as a "sufficiently changed condition", but that's Robert's, and this is the Senate, and the rules aren't the same....)

[EV_Ares]

10. What the hell do these dems stand for and can't they, oh well!

Bunch of cowards.

[malaise]

11. Sickening

Dems are way too accommodating. The Republicans have to be taught that they are the minority.

[tom_paine]

14. In six years, the pathetic Dems never filibustered ONCE

How long did it take the Busheviks to do it the first time? LESS THAN A MONTH!

God damn am I sick of being represented by people who cannot stand up and FIGHT! NEVER in my life has one Party been so wholly correct and the other so wholly wrong and perhaps evil.

And yet the Democrats are behaving as if the situation is reversed. After SIX YEARS, can they still be trapped in the Bushevik Fantasy Bubble. Are they afraid of being Wellstoned? WHAT?!?

[malaise]

15. True but the Dems invited Bush to speak with them

They have to learn to fight the same way. This is frightening.

[no_hypocrisy]

18. Don't forget that for the past two years, dems were threatened

with removal of the filibuster and have the votes on a simple majority vote. It started with the opening for Alito to the Supreme Court. Why would the dems filibuster at that point if it would snatched away?

[tom_paine]

23. Oh horseshit! CALL THEIR BLUFF!

We've been "keeping our powder dry", now impeachment is off the table. Our Democratic Party sure does a lot of recoiling in fear AND I AM SICK OF IT!

[Cocoa]

33. not true

why are you letting Russ Feingold down by forgetting his filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal?

What about Miguel Estrada and the other judges the dems filibustered?

Why would the dems bother fighting for what you cry about, when you forget about it the second they do it.

[tom_paine]

43. I mean a SUCCESSFUL filibuster, where the party hangs together

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/02/senate-easily-cuts-off-feingold.php

"The US Senate moved closer towards a long-term renewal of the USA Patriot Act Thursday, easily overcoming a filibuster by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) in a 96-3 vote . Sens. Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) cast the only votes joining Feingold in his efforts."

Russ Feingold is one of the handful of True Americans we have in Congress and I have a great deal of respect for him. It is not he nor his 'quixotic' filibuster (why was it 'quixotic'? because the party caved like gutless toadies, that's why!)

Yes, the Dems filibustered Estrada and a couple others, but they caved on 95% of Bushevik judges.

Yes, in my anger I forgot the puny, infrequent, handful of filibusters them Dems waged, many 'quixotic' (read: FAILED). My bad.

But does it make the Dem policy of "keep the powder dry" any less a strategy of failure and appeasement of tyrants (namely Litle Boots Bushler).

Already, they are talking about 2008. Now the caution begins. And the Busheviks can now open our mail, Bushevik Political Officers now lord it over our executive agencies, Sovietizing them.

We have already lost much of our System of Checks and Balances, nearly all of the Bill of Rights and much of the Constitution itself. These puny nonbinding half measures, laughably cut off at the knees, are the tepid and lukewarm actions of the German Social Democrats against Hitler, circa 1933, even if Little Boots' Imperial Senators hadn't put the kibosh on it.

I ave busted my ass for the Dems in the alst 3 "elections" and I will be making it four here in '08, but I cannot deny that we are, as Bartcop said "The Party of Pink Tutus".

I say it more plain...our Democratic Party is astonishingly like the German Social Democratic Party of 1933.

[Cocoa]

47. what about John Bolton?

your claim, in capital letters, that the dems never filibustered is bogus.

[tom_paine]

48. I said: In my anger I forgot about our puny and mostly fruitless few

filibusters.

How about that Bolton? He get the job?

My claim, made out of anger and frustration IS bogus. You and the other poster showed me that. But does it change a whit that the Democratic Party cannot muster the political will and spine over a hundred different crimes resulting in the deaths of almost a million innocents and the stealing of trillions.

Oh, and don't forget the MURDER of the Constitution and Bill or Rights.

Yeah, my blanket claim is technically untrue, but that changes NOTHING that our Democrats are by and large a bunch of scared rabbits.

And such cannot stop a Hitler or a Bush. And I am MAD!

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

16. Which Repub Crossed Over?

Without Reid, Johnson or Lieberman, there are only 48 Democratic/Independent votes. Who was the 49th?

[joemurphy]

24. Norm Coleman and Susan Collins n/t

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

27. Did A Democrat Other Than Johnson Not Cast A Vote? nt

51 Democrats/Independents

Less: 1 Lieberman Loser Vote
Less: 1 Johnson Absent Non-Vote
Plus: 2 Repub Votes
Less: 1 Reid "Procedural" No-Vote

Equals 50 Votes Yes. Unless another Democrat abstained.

[joemurphy]

29. I don't think so. Just Lieberman n/t

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

32. Found Answer

Never mind.

[Hippo_Tron]

45. No surprise, Normy is suddenly crossing over now that he's up for re-election

Seems that he votes solidly party line GOP when he doesn't have to face the voters.

[AndyA]

17. I DO NOT LIKE WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THE DEMS IN CONGRESS RIGHT NOW

No impeachment of Bush, a pResident who is begging for it.

Wasting time in Congress with useless non-binding resolutions, and they can't even get those passed!

When in the hell are the American people going to have a Congress and a Government that works FOR THEM, instead of AGAINST them?

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[mmonk]

36. Welcome to the real world.

[Edgewater_Joe]

42. So the Republicans Tarring Themselves Is A Bad Thing?

If the Democrats couldn't push this bill, what makes you think they would've been any more successful with a full resolution asking for withdrawal?

In fact, Dianne Feinstein warned on CNN yesterday that if this resolution isn't going to get a hearing that it was MORE likely that Democrats would start submitting bills with teeth and probably starting to defund the war.

Keep the pressure on your representatives and don't be so glum. These are the first few moves in a game that's likely to be going on until January 2009, I'm guessing.

[PsN2Wind]

19. No threat of the "Nuclear option"

that the repubs threatened the Democrats with??? Worked for them against us.

[meldroc]

21. Time for the nuclear option?

If the Republicans are going to do nothing but be obstructionists, maybe we should remove the filibuster.

Didn't seem to do the Democrats much good when they were the minority.

[TroglodyteScholar]

40. Not that simple

The nuclear option is only an option when you have either a) a majority that isn't razor-thin, or b) a LOT of crossovers

Shit, you can't pass ANYTHING with 49 votes.

[EndElectoral]

25. This is a BSnon-bindign resolution. I want to hear some Senators screaming....where is it????

[joemurphy]

26. Stabenow just gave a very moving speech doing just that. n/t

[The Stranger]

30. GOP will fillibuster a resolution 70% of the U.S. agrees with, Dems were afraid to fillibuster Alito

Who is the real enemy? The incomparably incompetent Democratic leadership, or the Republicans who are simply doing what Republicans are supposed to do?

[sampsonblk]

39. Thanks for pointing that out

nt

[malaise]

31. Bernie Sanders up now

and he's angry.

[adigal]

34. I had hopes of Bernie refusing to allow any other business

to go forth until there is a vote to discuss the Iraq War Resolution.

Courage, Bernie?? If anyone can do it, he can.

[Hippo_Tron]

46. Stalling business when you're in the majority is pointless

Because you're only stalling the agenda of the Democrats, all of whom voted to allow debate on the resolution. The GOP would have absolutely no problem with us stalling business.

[smalll]

35. Up or down vote!

Obstructionists! Up or down vote!

[Edgewater_Joe]

41. ... and they'll all go down with the S.S. CHENEY/BUSH because of it

Can you say 'obstructionist?'

Can you say 'Republican War?'

If not, you need to start rehearsing, because that's what this filibuster did.

Applaud their knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order, but know that by doing so the Republican Party signed their death warrant.

It doesn't save soldiers' lives in the short term, but it helps the entire world in the long term.

[AzDar]

44. Disgusting display today. Outmaneuvered by the Chinless Wonder..

we won't have the Majority much longer unless Dems in the Senate manage to do what the mid-term voters DEMANDED: stand up to George W. Bush!!