The F-Word Senate takes in-action, again

WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and a group of Senate colleagues went to the Senate floor Wednesday to speak out against the Republican filibuster of the American Jobs Act. Levin and Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Richard Durbin of Illinois spoke to highlight the Republican decision to thwart the will of a majority of the Senate and prevent a bill designed to address the nation’s jobs crisis.

In Senator Levin's remark's take note of key terms in play in the delaying legislation techinque: policy; filibuster; bully pulpit.




In CBS News reporting of the the filibuster that was to happened, why is the key number to pass a bill in the 100-member, 112th Senate 60?

Blog you thoughts on the merits of the filibuster in the comments section.

Filibuster and Cloture


Using the filibuster to delay or block legislative action has a long history. The term filibuster -- from a Dutch word meaning "pirate" -- became popular in the 1850s, when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill.

In the early years of Congress, representatives as well as senators could filibuster. As the House of Representatives grew in numbers, however, revisions to the House rules limited debate. In the smaller Senate, unlimited debate continued on the grounds that any senator should have the right to speak as long as necessary on any issue.

In 1841, when the Democratic minority hoped to block a bank bill promoted by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, he threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to close debate. Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton rebuked Clay for trying to stifle the Senate's right to unlimited debate.

Three quarters of a century later, in 1917, senators adopted a rule (Rule 22), at the urging President Woodrow Wilson, that allowed the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, a device known as "cloture." The new Senate rule was first put to the test in 1919, when the Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster against the Treaty of Versailles. Even with the new cloture rule, filibusters remained an effective means to block legislation, since a two-thirds vote is difficult to obtain. Over the next five decades, the Senate occasionally tried to invoke cloture, but usually failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote. Filibusters were particularly useful to Southern senators who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until cloture was invoked after a fifty-seven day filibuster against the Civil Right Act of 1964. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths, or sixty of the current one hundred senators.

Many Americans are familiar with the filibuster conducted by Jimmy Stewart, playing Senator Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra's film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but there have been some famous filibusters in the real-life Senate as well. During the 1930s, Senator Huey P. Long effectively used the filibuster against bills that he thought favored the rich over the poor. The Louisiana senator frustrated his colleagues while entertaining spectators with his recitations of Shakespeare and his reading of recipes for "pot-likkers." Long once held the Senate floor for fifteen hours. The record for the longest individual speech goes to South Carolina's J. Strom Thurmond who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

(From Polictical Warrior archives)

Your text defines filibuster as a procedural tactic in the U.S. Senate whereby a minority of legislators prevents a bill from to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, this Congress doesn't get much respect. Just Unlucky? Congress Job Approval at 13% Americans rate it slightly above sludge, but below President Obama and former president George W. Bush, the least admired president in the history of polling.

Who gets the blame for the so-called "Do Nothing Congress?"

Well, as the chart from Secretary of the Senate, a record number of cloture motions were filed in the 110th Congress, and the non-momentum didn't stop in the 111th. Majority Rule?

Did this week's inaction show just more of the same?

Majority rule has essentially been repealed by the F-word Congress. Without the super-majority of sixty votes to end the filibusters, the accomplishments of the 110th Congress were limited (GI-Bill, Children's Health Care and minimum wage as riders as notable exceptions to Progressives; continued stimulus packages to all Americans a victory in the conservative column). The 'Do Nothingness' was reinforced by over 131 veto threats by President Bush (who never issued a veto when Republican majority Congresses ran up record deficits on Capitol Hill).

So the question for the 112th Senate is should it move to remove the filibuster? Or is the procedure a needed part of the Cup and Saucer dance that is currently like a slow Washington waltz? A 51-vote majority to pass a law seemingly has been replaced by the super majority 60.

In our texts, of civics and history, we note how Strom Thurmond (he who served in the Senate till he was 100 years old) filibustered for 24 straight hours to block civil rights legistlation. It was rare, historic and self-hurting (Thurmond sat in the sauna the entire night before so he wouldn' t have to lose his podium to take a pee). And the procedure worked. Now the F-word has been so common, that the minority party can just make a resolution to block. They don’t have to read newspapers and phonebooks and sit in a sauna the night before to pull one off.

With 40 votes to block, minority Republicans have kept the Democrats at bay at the end of the 110th Congress. On the American Jobs Act that was just blocked from being debate or voted on, the majority Democrats needed all 53 of its members (counting Independent Joseph Lieberman)  plus 7 GOP members to debate the bill. No up or down vote on the Jobs Act, just more procedural theater. There has been no vote on immigration legislation, or Don't Ask, Don't Tell, for that matter, on any real important governing policy. Governing is Hard, Politics is Easy.  The 110th, 111th and so-far the 112th has mostly been a do-nothing Congress -- some may say filibustered to death.

When the Republicans were in the majority they devised a "nuclear option" to consider outlawing the procedure, when Democrats threatened to filibuster several of President Bush's judicial appointments. Now it seems to be their only winning play in the Senate.

Jimmy Stewart filibustered and become a populist hero in the classic film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Those were the days...