When you hear M$M talk about an disfunctional Congress, consider the GOP's endless filibustering

[Bill USA]

here is a great article from Nov 2010 on the GOP's relentless use of the filibuster to slow down or stopping anything getting done in Congress:

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/gop-promises-two-more-years-no-compromise">GOP Promises Two More Years of No Compromise - Crooks and Liars

they also use filibuster by amendment to slow things down. They have even offered amendments which they didn't even vote for!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1966451,00.html">Why Washington is Tied up in Knots - Peter Beinart - Time magazine

...

In Clinton's first two years in office, the Gingrich Republicans learned that the vicious circle works. While filibusters were occasionally broken, they also brought much of Clinton's agenda to a halt, and they made Washington look pathetic. In one case, GOP Senators successfully filibustered changes to a 122-year-old mining act, thus forcing the government to sell roughly $10 billion worth of gold rights to a Canadian company for less than $10,000. In another, Republicans filibustered legislation that would have applied employment laws to members of Congress — a reform they had loudly demanded.

With these acts of legislative sabotage, Republicans tapped into a deep truth about the American people: they hate political squabbling, and they take out their anger on whoever is in charge. So when the Gingrich Republicans carried out a virtual sit-down strike during Clinton's first two years, the public mood turned nasty. By 1994, trust in government was at an all-time low, which suited the Republicans fine, since their major line of attack against Clinton's health care plan was that it would empower government. Clintoncare collapsed, Democrats lost Congress, and Republicans learned the secrets of vicious-circle politics: When the parties are polarized, it's easy to keep anything from getting done. When nothing gets done, people turn against government. When you're the party out of power and the party that reviles government, you win.
(See 10 GOP congressional contenders.)



All this, it turns out, was a mere warm-up for the Obama years. On the surface, it appeared that Obama took office in a stronger position than Clinton had, since Democrats boasted more seats in the Senate. But in their jubilation, Democrats forgot something crucial: vicious-circle politics thrives on polarization. As the GOP caucus in the Senate shrank, it also hardened. Early on, the White House managed to persuade three Republicans to break a filibuster of its stimulus plan. But one of those Republicans, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter — under assault for his vote and facing a right-wing primary challenge — switched parties. That meant that of the six Senate Republicans with the most moderate voting records in 2007, only two were still in the Senate, and in the party, by '09. The Wednesday lunch club had ceased to exist. And the fewer Republican moderates there were, the more dangerous it was for any of them to cut deals across the aisle.


In 2009, Senate Republicans filibustered a stunning 80% of major legislation, even more than during the Clinton years. GOP leader Mitch McConnell led a filibuster of a deficit-reduction commission that he himself had demanded. The Obama White House spent months trying to lure the Finance Committee's ranking Republican, Chuck Grassley, into supporting a deal on health care reform and gave his staff a major role in crafting the bill. But GOP officials back home began threatening to run a primary challenger against the Iowa Senator. By late summer, Grassley wasn't just inching away from reform; he was implying that Obamacare would euthanize Grandma.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1966451,00.html#ixzz1VnjU8G00

[daa]

1. Democrats don't know how to play since LBJ left

They think they will be rewarded for acting stupid. Never are thought are they?

[AndyTiedye]

3. We Still Had Some of the Media On Our Side Back in Those Days

Things were very different back then. There actually WAS liberal media.

Now most of America is constantly brainwashed by Repiglickin propaganda on the Tee Vee.
They never get to hear our side of the story.

[Bill USA]

4. Repiglickin??? LOL!

[AndyTiedye]

2. Kicked and Recommended

Such a policy of total obstruction can only work for the Republicans because they have the unshakable loyalty of every Tee Vee station in the country, no matter what they do.
The Democrats would be crucified by the media if we had done anything like that during the Bush administration.

[Major Hogwash]

5. The mainstream media never talks about the filibusters.

Like they never happened.

[xocet]

6. dysfunctional n/t