I can’t help being totally amused by the Democrats whining about alleged abuses of the filibuster by Republicans which has Harry Reid promising filibuster reform next year.
Leaders in the Senate indicated yesterday they will begin discussions within weeks about how to change filibuster rules — which have allowed Republicans in the Senate to block legislation that does not receive 60 votes.
Liberal activists and bloggers hailed the news, after clamoring for Democrats to take action against GOP tactics, which has kept Democrats from advancing key items on their agenda like health care reform.
In a discussion with liberal media outlets Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that the Senate would look at new filibuster rules at the start of the next Congress, the Huffington Post reports.
What’s truly ironic is that the filibuster, a delay tactic for legislation, was abused by Democrats in the Bush years to block qualified nominees from the courts and other appointed positions. The same liberal activists and bloggers who are drooling at the idea of killing the filibuster now were hailing the Democrats filibusters under Bush.
This just goes to show you that Democrats only believe in rules when those rules work for them. After the 2000 election they wanted to kill the Electoral College. In 2004, they wanted to challenge the results of Ohio, even though no finagling of the results would have created a national popular vote win for Kerry. In Massachusetts, the Democrat controlled legislature changed the law on vacancies to prevent Republican governor Mitt Romney from having the power to appoint a replacement for John Kerry had he won the presidential election, and Massachusetts Democrats changed the rule back so Democrat governor Deval Patrick could immediately appoint Paul Kirk, rather than hold a special election when Democrats hoped to ram through health care.
Back to this filibuster nonsense… Let’s consider what it actually happening… Republicans today are trying to prevent Democrats from ramming through unpopular legislation, Democrats prevented a sitting president from fufilling his constitutional obligation to fill vacancies on the courts… yet Republicans are the ones accused of abusing the filibuster? Is Harry Reid joking?
When a majority of the people oppose legislation, one would think that members of Congress would listen to the people. Well, Democrats are turning a blind eye to the will of the people and have been trying to shove there health care takeover through Congress with little debate. Their actions essential prove why the filibuster is an important part of the Senate’s rules.
Granted, I agree that in recent years that the filibuster has been abused, but that’s a result of the growing partisan divide in government, and a failure of the Senate to police itself with regards to its rules. Republicans let Democrats abuse the filibuster when they blocked George W. Bush’s nominees, and their lack of action to stop that abuse has paved the way for a “standard” 60 vote threshold on legislation. Something must be done about that, for sure. But, if Democrats think Republicans are abusing the filibuster, then clearly they do not understand what its purpose is, because they pioneered modern day abuse of the filibuster.
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