Will Dems Try to Kill the Filibuster?
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.