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The Republican Party Is a Party of ‘NO’
The Republicans in Congress are at it again, stonewalling everything. Last time we called it “block and blame.” Stop everything, then blame the Democrats for getting nothing done.
Republicans last year in the 110th Congress filibustered more legislation, and required more cloture votes to break those filibusters, than any Congress in history. The tactic was used to stall and halt key legislation, and give Congress the stigma of a “do-nothing Congress.” As former Republican Sen. Trent Lott remarked, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail...and so far it's working for us.”
Now there is a new form of obstructionism in the Senate. Senate Republicans have been blocking the confirmation of a large number of the Obama administration’s nominees, and it’s not because of past scandal or competency worries, but mainly because of egregious holds that have little to do with their politics or suitability for the position.
Holds on nominations are certainly not, on their own, an audacious tactic. Used reasonably, they allow Congress time to more comprehensively question a nominee’s legitimacy. But the current practice by Republicans of extensive use for uncertain duration for even the most qualified and uncontroversial of Obama’s nominees is pure obstructionism.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) chastised his former party on Fox News Sunday morning, saying there's no working with the GOP.
"On the Republican side, it is no, no, no. A party of obstructionism," he said.
In years past, uncontroversial nominees who received bipartisan support made it easily through Senate confirmation. But nowadays uncontroversial nominees are simply pawns in the larger war against Obama’s agenda. By preventing the confirmation of almost all nominees, Republicans are forcing Sen. Reid to negotiate or waste floor time on each unreasonable count of obstructionism.
During President Bush’s time, only a handful of partisan nominees received opposition, and the filibuster was used as an extreme of last resort. By Sen. Reid’s count, the Senate has confirmed 366 Obama nominees. In contrast, by their first term, Bush had 421 nominees in place, Clinton had 379 nominees, and 480 of President Regan’s nominees had been confirmed. 53 of Obama’s nominees are still waiting for a full Senate vote, and another 175 are pending in committee. Furthermore, since its conception in 1949, cloture votes have been forced on only 24 nominees, but in the first nine months of the Obama administration there have been 5 such cloture votes.
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..... you are 'full of shit'. I rest my case.
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