Will Dems Try to Kill the Filibuster?

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Congress

(AP)

Republican filibusters have made it difficult for the Senate to get anything substantial done lately, but Democrats say Republicans went too far when they used the procedural tool to block a routine nomination to the National Labor Relations Board.

President Obama's nominee Craig Becker was rejected by the Senate yesterday. Even though 52 senators voted in favor of the union lawyer and only 33 voted against him, it takes 60 senators to overcome a "filibuster," a tool designed to prolong debate.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told the Huffington Post that the filibuster is unsustainable.

"I think it will either fall of its own weight -- it should fall of its own weight -- or it will fall after some massive conflict on the floor, which has happened in the past where there have been rulings from the chair that have led to reform," Levin said.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) added that in previous sessions of Congress, Republican leaders would not have allowed the use of the filibuster on such a routine nomination, the Huffington Post reports.

"I'm in my thirty-sixth year. I've never seen anything like it," he said.

Republicans would contend that Democrats are more familiar with obstructionist tactics than they claim to be.

"Bipartisan support for protecting minority rights," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote on the social networking site Twitter with respect to the filibuster. "What goes around comes around."

Annie Lowrey of Newsweek points out that former President George W. Bush faced obstruction from Democrats in the Senate over his labor and judicial nominees. She also points out, however, that one year into the Bush administration, there were 70 appointees pending while there are currently more than 200 pending for the Obama administration. Furthermore, Mr. Bush bypassed the Senate and made appointments during congressional recess as many as 10 times in his first year, while Mr. Obama is only beginning to threaten to do so.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is proposing a resolution to water down the power of the filibuster, but as Cornyn said, there is "bipartisan support" to keep such tools around. "These nascent efforts to curb the use of filibuster face resistance from Senate elders with long memories, who know that political winds can take today's large majority and create tomorrow's minority," the Washington Post reported.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by JimthePuritan February 12, 2010 8:55 PM EST: Thank goodness, I don't see how anyone with any commons sense can agree to putting card carrying socialists on the NLRB.; Reply to this comment


by likeitbe February 11, 2010 12:33 PM EST: Maybe Obama shouldn't have tried to appoint an avowed socialist to the NLRB. Actually, Obama had little choice, though; he's been bought lock, stock and barrel by Union interests. Obama sold out.; Reply to this comment


by jimbom121 February 11, 2010 8:38 AM EST: No they should not abolish the filibuster...they need to get a little spine and get legislation passed. The Dems are spineless. Looka t how many times the Repubs used reconciliation in the early 2000's. They passed tax cust via reconciliation. Dems will not need a filibuster if they get some guts.; Reply to this comment

by RobAla February 11, 2010 7:49 AM EST

The President has nominated several wacky people and socialist in the past. This includes his Czar on Child Safety that advocates adult/child sex. It includes, Anita Dunn, a fan of Mao Zedong - who is believed to be responsible for killing 50 million Chinese. It would be a really good thing to take a serious assessment of his nominees.

Van Jones: White House Council on Environmental Quality:
He was appointed by President Barack Obama in March 2009, to the newly-created position on the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he worked with various "agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities." In July 2009 he became "embroiled in controversy" over his past political activities including his 1990s association with a Marxist group, a public comment disparaging Congressional Republicans, and his name appearing on a petition for 911Truth.org. Highlighting these issues, conservatives launched an aggressive campaign against him. Jones resigned from the position in early September. When he graduated from law school, Jones gave up plans to take a job in Washington, D.C., and moved to San Francisco instead. He got involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism. While associated with STORM, Jones actively began protesting police brutality.

Anita Dunn: White Communications Director:
On June 5, 2009, Dunn delivered a speech to students at St. Andrew?s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, in which she stated "... two of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa, not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point...you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths" or "let external definition define how good you are internally." Dunn continued, "In 1947, when Mao Zedong was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side. And people said, "How can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this against all of the odds against you?" And Mao Zedong said, you know, "You fight your war, and I'll fight mine." The Mother Theresa quote, "Go find your own Calcutta." was in response to a offer to help her at her mission in Calcutta.

Carol Browner: Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
On December 15, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama named Browner to the position of Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.[44] Officially known as the Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, she acts as a coordinator for environmental, energy, climate, transport and related matters for the federal government. Her position is sometimes informally described as the "Energy Czar" or the "Climate Czar". Browner joined the board of the National Audubon Society in 2001 and became chair in 2003; her term expired in 2008. She also joined the board of the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization founded by Gore in 2006. In 2008 she joined the board of APX, Inc., which specializes in technology infrastructure for the environmental commodities markets, including those for carbon offsets and the CDM Gold Standard. She was also on the boards of the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection, and the League of Conservation Voters. She left all of these boards in late 2008 when she was named to serve in the Obama administration. Until summer 2008 she was a member of Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, although the commission's web site still had her listed as a member in January 2009..

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by jimbom121 February 11, 2010 8:36 AM EST: You need to stop taking your information from Glenn Beck


by redwilma February 11, 2010 12:33 AM EST: I'm really mad at the Republican Senators AND the DINOs. I support Obama's proposals and we NEED health care reform or we'll go broke and the country will go broke and we won't have medicare for ANYONE.; Reply to this comment

by retm-w February 10, 2010 10:59 PM EST

You want a Union lawyer on the NLRB? Every time he makes a ruling it will be against business, right or wrong. And you wonder why business's are going offshore. You might as well just put the president of the SEIU or the AFL-CIO on the board. Enough of political paybacks.

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by jimbom121 February 11, 2010 8:36 AM EST: Ummm, the last guy was a lawyer reprenting management on lawsuits. I'd rather have the guy representing the worker.


by ky7474 February 10, 2010 10:24 PM EST: The dems need to act like they realize what the repubs and their special interest just did to the country. Don't look the other way, hold them accountable. This was a calculated crime that cannot be tolerated.; Reply to this comment