Senate Dem leaders float plan for forced filibuster

[babylonsister]

Senate Dem leaders float plan for forced filibuster
By Manu Raju and Mike Soraghan
November 14, 2007

Senate Democrats might force Republicans to wage a filibuster if the GOP wants to block the latest Iraq withdrawal bill, aides and senators said Tuesday.

That could set the stage for a dramatic end-of-the-year partisan showdown, which Democrats hope will help them turn voter frustration with Congress and the stalemate over Iraq into anger with the Republican Party.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the chamber, said a forced filibuster is “possible” and would “generate attention.”

“We want to go to the bill, and have to decide initially whether they want us to go to the bill,” Durbin said. “I wouldn’t call it theatrics.”

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the co-author of the bill that failed after last summer’s all-night Iraq session, said Tuesday that allowing Republicans to carry out a threatened filibuster is a strategy that Democratic leaders have discussed with him. But he declined to comment further.

“I’d rather that statement come from the leadership,” Levin told The Hill.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), declined to comment.

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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-dem-leaders-float-plan-for-forced-filibuster-2007-11-14.html