March 4, 2008
You’re NOT Writing About Super Tuesday Two Right Now?
Let’s face it, nobody cares about what goes on in congress as long as the right laws are passed and the wrong laws aren’t. As a result, very little has been made of the most stubborn majority-less party in United States history since Thomas Jefferson was voted in by the house after thirty-five ballots. According to the Senate’s website, the Republicans in senate have filibustered 73 times, not to mention George Bush’s 7 vetos, since the Democrats have taken control of the senate and house. That means effectively that neither party has a working majority, since it takes 60% of the vote to break a filibuster. Since there are 49 democrats, 49 republicans, 1 moderate independent (Lieberman), and one self-defined socialist (Sanders) in senate, nothing has gotten done in the 110th, congress, since no party has an outright majority, let alone the three fifths majority that one needs to break a fillibuster. As such, 47 bills and counting, with another 6 done by veto, have been killed via Republican fillibuster, and there’s another year to go in this congressional session.
This post, however, is not a complaint. The point that I’m trying to make is that the Democrats, during the Republicans’ brief time running both houses, would threaten and threaten to filibuster but rarely do so, because they were afraid of bad press. The Republicans have filibusters every several days, and the media doesn’t bat an eye. The Democrats need to realize that the current senate laws effectively make all bills require a three fifths majority to pass, and as such they should either
A) Draw attention to the frequent filibustering by their opponents
B) Get rid of the rule
C) Make a proxy “gang of 14″ (it would have to be a gang of 18 or 20 now) whereby a group of moderates on the other side of the aisle agree to break filibusters when necessary.
This problem will get a lot more press after the elections when the Democrats have a 55-45 majority in the senate, when filibusters begin to stop decisive majorities, rather than 48-46 pluralities. The Democrats either have to learn to play to the press like the Republicans do, or get used to bowing to the tyranny of the minority party.
Results and analysis of Ohio and Texas can be found here at about 11:00 Pacific, and that’s the Muse.
