I recently starting subscribing to a blog by Robert Hubbell because it has interesting takes on the day’s news. This post from yesterday puts the news into context. If you want to subscribe, here is the link.
McConnell’s Ugly (and Empty) Threat
On Tuesday, Mitch McConnell issued an ugly threat that was vintage Mitch McConnell. In a sign of desperation and fear, McConnell warned Democrats not to eliminate the filibuster, saying:
Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin, even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like.
Okay, Mitch! Challenge accepted! I will try to imagine what a ‘scorched-earth Senate’ would look like.
My first idea is that if you ever become Majority Leader again, you will refuse to allow any Democratic bill to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote. Oh, wait! You already used that technique from 2017 through 2020, so we can ‘imagine’ what that version of a ‘scorched earth Senate’ looks like. Darn!
Here’s another idea: Republicans should agree that no matter what legislation Democrats propose, every Republican will vote against every Democratic bill—regardless of how popular the bill is with the American public. Oops! That’s what Republicans are doing now, so we can ‘imagine’ what that version of a ‘scorched-earth Senate’ looks like. Fudge!
My next idea is crazy, but stick with me: What if Republicans refuse to grant a hearing for a Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president (on the theory that there might be an election in the future), but rush through the Supreme Court nominee of a Republican president in two weeks? Argh! I forgot! We can ‘imagine’ what that looks like because you crammed through the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in two weeks after Trump was defeated. Shut the front door!
Okay, Mitch. I am not giving up. No one in their right mind would ever do this: What if Republicans attempted to overturn the vote of the Electoral College by objecting to the counting of those votes because of baseless claims of election fraud that were rejected by the U.S. Attorney General, sixty-two state and federal courts, and Republican state election officials? Oh, shoot! We can ‘imagine’ what that looks like because that is what Republicans did to incite the January 6th Capitol Insurrection.
So, Mitch. You are wrong. We can ‘imagine’ what a ‘scorched-earth Senate’ looks like. It looks like the current Senate. It looks like unbridled obstructionism. It looks like bad-faith manipulation of Senate rules to pervert the process of elevating justice to the Supreme Court. It looks like an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. We can imagine what a scorched-earth Senate looks like because we believe your depravity is bottomless. We get it. Whatever you can do, you will do—without hesitation or remorse. So, Mitch, don’t try to sweet-talk us out of eliminating the filibuster. We will—as soon as we can. Hold that thought, Mitch. Democracy will catch up with you. It’s just a matter of time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Make him do it,” tweeted Jonathan Cohn, a Massachusetts-based editor and activist.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/19/make-him-do-it-lindsey-graham-says-he-would-talk-until-he-fell-over-stop-voting
Poste at OEN: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/McConnell-Threatens-Scorc-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Democrats-Winning-Back-The-Senate_Filibuster_McConnell-Mitch_Obstructionism-210319-716.html
Mitch McConnell didn’t want democrats to get credit for anything that went through the Senate . . . and so this is what happened:
First, NO democratic bills would make it to the floor much less get passed, especially if it was popular with Republican constituents, again, because democrats would get credit for it.
Second, NOTHING can get done if the President is a democrat . . . because democrats would get credit for it.
So, on principle, NOTHING gets done . . . except, of course, the McConnell agenda of filling judgeships with right-wingers and stamping-out any evidence of conscience in other Republican senators. CBK
Apyly stated. I challenge McConnell to describe and clearly define “scorched earth”. Put the onus on him to back his bluster.
McConnell’s scorched-earth policy is standard operating procedure for the GQP which is hell-bent on destroying our democracy and the effectiveness of government. But wait there’s more, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas: from NBC news -Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he had “no apologies” after he made what appeared to be a pro-lynching remark during a congressional hearing on combatting anti-Asian American violence.
“The victims of race-based violence and their families deserve justice,” Roy said in his opening statement at the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, adding that he was concerned about the “thought police” stifling free speech. “We believe in justice. There are old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. We take justice very seriously. And we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That’s what we believe,” he said. “My concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, free speech, and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys.” end quote
There’s no difference between the parties? Who in the Democratic party is “fondly” talking about the wonders of lynching?! Who in the D party is that tone deaf or awful. Roy considers hate speech against Asians to be a minor blip. It’s pretty obvious he represents the interests of the KKK and the Proud Boys.
What similarity exists between this posting and the posting about the College board? I can think of several common threads. The most important is the idea that some people deserve favor by virtue of the fact that they are able to jump through fabricated hoops. Some people do not.
By now Biden should have learned that he cannot negotiate with terrorists or Republicans. Biden must embrace ending the filibuster if he intends to pass more legislation. There is so much work to do on infrastructure, social justice, immigration and raising the minimum wage. People elected Biden to move our nation forward. People are tired of obstruction and legislative impasse. He needs to ignore conservative threats. End the filibuster ASAP.
A Government of the people, by the people, and FOR the people. What a concept. CBK
I love the idea of forcing the talking filibuster. There is a good reason for the Republicans to fear it, so Mitch is clearly terrified.
The talking filibuster FOCUSES the country on what is being filibustered. And as we know, Democratic legislation is a lot more popular than Republican legislation.
Republicans want to filibuster a minimum wage increase? Have at it! It would be a very good thing to have a public discussion so that the voters understand that the Republicans will fight to the end to prevent higher wages.
Republicans want to filibuster a tax increase on the top .01% who have increased their wealth multiple fold during the pandemic? Have at it, Republicans. Let’s force this country into a reckoning about whether or not they can afford it.
Same with sensible gun control legislation.
Many of these issues are quite popular. It would be good for the country to see the Republicans fighting with every ounce of their effort to prevent legislation that doesn’t help billionaires.
When Mitch McConnell did this during the last 6 years of the Obama administration, it went practically unnoticed. It went practically unnoticed by the majority of the voters that under Trump, McConnell would quash any legislation passed by the House without even allowing a vote.
I want to see Susan Collins forced to filibuster policy that is good for her constituents or forced to criticize her party for preventing it and answer questions about why she isn’t doing something to stop it.
Pass that talking filibuster right now! I’d love to see the Democrats, some time in the future, strongly defending preventing a vote on some terrible and dangerous Republican legislation in the future in a talking filibuster to bring attention to the issue.
When you are on the right side of an issue, you should be willing to defend it publicly and have Americans focus on what this vote will do. Talking filibusters would do that.
It is HR-1, The People’s Act, passed by the house, McConnell fears the most right now.
The filibuster needs to be made harmless. Other legislation standing in the wings will profit as well.
The reason the Courts have been so important to National Republicans is that they will use the court to achieve in a stealth manner policy that they could never pass in Congress. Example Right to Work , Moscow Mitch knows he could lose 3-4 seats in some states where RTW has been rejected by the people after being enacted by Red State Legislatures..The same holds true on several issues .
Democrats should go big or go home .
I think we’ll miss the filibuster later if we ditch it now.
I think we will lose Democracy if we don’t ditch it now. . The inability to deliver to the voting Public Policy that is favored by most has gotten us to wear we are today . |
“A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters’ confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that “they are all crooks,” and that “government is no good,” further leading them to think, “a plague on both your houses” and “the parties are like two kids in a school yard.” This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s – a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn (“Government is the problem,” declared Ronald Reagan in 1980). ”
How did Lofgren know Trump was coming way back in 2011. When Government sucks and Democracy does not function who cares what fascist is in office till he comes after you. .
As usual wear out/ where in .
I’ll just say I disagree.
FLERP This is just a “perhaps” note.
That is, perhaps, at this point in time, bold is better than tepid; perhaps applying heretofore-neglected or abandoned democratic principles is better than, say, second-guessing The American People and what they will do AFTER Biden and those in the Democratic Party SHOW them what Government can do . . . not only for the economic underclass, but for the economy as a whole.
Perhaps we can stop expecting the Republicans (who have brought deplorable to the mainstream) to do anything but BE the lowlife scam artists that they actually ARE.
Perhaps we can think beyond today’s predatory-capitalist mentality that spawned “societies of singularities” and Facebook’s “opinion ghettos” to understand, implement, and SHOW a mediated version of respected-privacy-in-community, public space and service as high-points for what human excellence means, and trust in a qualified electorate?
Just perhaps-ing. CBK
Jwherman11 None of what you say surprises me.
McConnell to his Republicans: “It’s obstruction, stupid.”
I say, get rid of the filibuster; full-out support the democratic down tickets; and THEN let The People decide if Reagan et al were right, or if it’s been a long-term scam on the American electorate.
BTW, I’ve talked to several people in the last 6 months who didn’t know that the U.S. Congress was made up of the House and the Senate, or how that works. They hear that a bill has passed (the House), and then it hits the Senate and goes nowhere . . . so they ask: “What happened? I thought that bill passed?”
And these people graduated from high school, at least. If they passed a “government” class, they couldn’t have known what it meant or why it was important . . . to them or to their way of life now. CBK
Republican Senators have 50 votes in the Senate. They represent 40% of the American public.
Absolutely, it is crystal clear that the GOP goal is to cripple government when the Ds are in power. When the GOP is in power, its only goal is to give tax cuts to the rich, deregulate to the nth degree and to undermine and eventually eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and any other social programs. Actually it’s even worse with the likes of the Trumpy/QAnon crowd who celebrate xenophobia, intolerance, chauvinism and fake religiosity. Their only goal is destruction of government and a useful democracy. They hate democracy and don’t want too many people voting.
Catherine King
By the way its actually Joel . Something happened to my Twitter logon .
But if we even assumed they understood how the Government works would they know who stood for what . That even has relevance with in the parties making it more complex .
I hear highly paid union workers call those that support union rights the most Socialists . The only current Socialist I know of is Jerome Powell . Powell and the Fed , who offered to buy unlimited corporate Bond Debt to keep the Bond/ Stock markets alive.
MLK had something to say about American Socialism for the rich. And rugged individualism for the poor.
Joel Wherman11 These days, referring to a nation or culture as “socialist” is like referring to eagles as “birds” . . . but then, so are sparrows, swans, and chickens.
If understanding political nuance is not common to U.S. Citizens who are high school graduates, then “perhaps” it should be . . . .
And I say should be NOT as some pie-in-the-sky “liberal” ideal, but rather as also understanding the source of our present unsustainable political reality . . . where democracy is quickly becoming a has-been, having already passed the “let’s shoot ourselves in the foot” and “listen to the oligarchs and scam artists” phases. CBK
Catherine King
What you say education “should be” , would not find many detractors on Diane’s Blog. It is what it has become K-U, by a concerted effort to prevent it from becoming that Jeffersonian vision of education as a safeguard of Democracy . .The” threat to the entrepreneurial system” noted 5 decades ago.
Joel Yes, yes, and . . . . yes. CBK
FLERP!,
Do you support changing the filibuster to a talking filibuster, or do you support continuing to make it as easy as possible for Republican Senators to block all legislation without having to lift a finger?
The filibuster would be a good idea if it was used the way it had traditionally been used before Mitch McConnell.
And, fyi, if the Democrats don’t end the filibuster right now in order to pass some real voter protections, the Republicans will drop it as soon as they gain power in order to enshrine that power forever by continuing to work to allow democracy only for the people who will vote for them.
Joe Biden was a strong supporter of the filibuster,even when that hurt him. But even Biden can see that the Republicans have misused it and if they want to filibuster, they need to put in the effort and make sure the public knows exactly what they are doing. And when the situation is turned around and the Democrats are publicly filibustering, having them make their case to the American people will be a good thing, too.
I’m not opposed to the talking filibuster.
If the filibuster is gone, will the Democrats miss it?
What are some of the good things that the Democrats used the filibuster for when the Republicans controlled the Senate in the last 20 years? I can’t think of any but would be happy to be enlightened by anyone who knows.
Why would the Democrats “miss it”? If they ever want to use the filibuster in the future, the Republicans will simply vote to end it. Is there a time when the Democrats filibustered something the Republicans wanted when the Republicans didn’t vote to end the filibuster, as they did for the Supreme Court?
Actually, the Democrats should do what the Republicans do: Change the filibuster rules each time they want to pass something:
The filibuster is no longer valid for gun control laws.
The filibuster is no longer valid for environmental laws.
The filibuster is DEFINITELY not valid for voting rights legislation.
The Democrats can do what the Republicans did and just say that we still have the filibuster, but it’s no longer for valid for whatever Democrats want passed. But the filibuster remains for everything else.
I’m not a historian but I do recall the Democrats filibustered a bunch of W. Bush’s judicial nominees. The Republican majority threatened to end the filibuster (the “nuclear option”) for non-SCOTUS judicial nominees, but a compromise was reached to avoid it. (Later a Dem-controlled Senate used the nuclear option when Republicans were blocking Obama nominees. I do think many regretted that decision after Trump was elected and was able to get a huge number of nominees on the bench without effective resistance. And of course the Republicans went “nuclear” on Supreme Court nominations, which gave us Gorsuch and more.
Oh, for the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington talking filibuster!
(& then the Groveling Old {& corrupt} Penumbra caves, cries & resigns!)
Could we have some more of the above, please?
(& where is our Mr. Smith in 2021?)
I don’t think many of our Senators today have the stamina to do it. Our Senate is not a sprightly institution.
BTW, every time I saw that movie (I think Turner now owns it, so can only watch on TCM, which is now a premium cable station) I filiBLustered…cried like a baby.
Fullabluster
Filibuster?
That’s a bitch
Fullabluster?
That is Mitch