Maybe that GOP "nuclear option" wasn't such a good idea after all!
Constant filibuster threat is tying Senate in knots (Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers)
Senate Republicans this year are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever, a pattern that's rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.
The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats' razor-thin win in last year's election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans' exile to the minority.
Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 "cloture" votes aimed at shutting off extended debate — filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one — and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority's right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.
There's a possible lesson for State Senator Dan Patrick, who would abolish the Texas Senate's "blocker bill" mechanism, which serves a similar institutional purpose as the U.S. Senate's filibuster rules.
Majorities will come and go in our deliberative bodies, just like the political issues that may raise our passions at any given time. While minority obstruction can be frustrating if you're on the 59% side of a given political issue, conservatives really ought not to object to mechanisms designed to temper passions, force deliberation, and "refine and enlarge the public views."
Even if it means we don't get our appraisal caps as soon as we'd like!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/07 13:42 | American Politics | Technorati
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