Pelosi and the House Dems Should Demand Dem Senators Kill the Fillibuster Rule

[David Dunham]

Nancy Pelosi, Hoyer and the other Democratic House leaders should not give up important parts of the stimulus package in conference committee. Instead, they should tell Harry Reid and the other Senate Democrats to suck it up, go back to the Senate, and get 51 Democratic Senators to vote this week to abolish the absurd fillibuster rule and then pass a stimulus bill close to the House version. They should also publicly call on progressive Democrats across the country to contact their Democratic senators and demand that the fillibuster rule be repealed. they would thus put tremendous heat on the Democratic senators to have the courage to kill the fillibuster rule so they can do what is right for the country and stop saying that they can do nothing without the "moderate" Republicans. That is a total crock because in a two minute vote the senate can repeal the fillibuster rule. Pelosi, Hoyer, and the other House leaders have to call the senators on it. I think the House Democrats could get many of the rank and file Democrats across the country to support their position. The bottom line is that the Democratic senate leadership is a bunch of cowards -- or at least not thinking clearly -- with respect to keeping the fillibuster rule in place. It is evident that as long as that rule is in place we will have no effective labor union, health care or other reforms of the type that Obama and the Democrats pledged to deliver.

[LittleClarkie]

1. Yeah, that'll be great for whenever we get the minority rule back

And someone like Jeb Bush takes over someday.

[jtrockville]

5. Dems never used it anyway - they were too meek.

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Social security was not privatized because of the filibuster

[jtrockville]

11. Oh, you're right. I forgot that one.

[havocmom]

2. Yep

[kenny blankenship]

3. We can save our breath because it's not going to happen

The filibuster empowers more than just the Repuke Party. It also empowers the Blue Repukes like Nelson of Nebraska. Not to mention Lieberman. Repukes threaten to filibuster, Blue Repukes then get to set the terms of the compromise. They get whatever they want in the way of pork and asskissing in order to placate them. There's no way they'd go along with a nuclear option to weaken or abolish the filibuster.

[rwheeler31]

4. How cowardly were we when we won?

[David Dunham]

6. Tne fillibuster rule has not been used effectively by Dems for many decades

It helps only the Repubs

[Hippo_Tron]

8. The filibuster is the reason that social security was not privatized

If that could have been done with just 51 senators it would been done right after the 2004 elections.

[Xipe Totec]

9. Yes it has

The mere threat of it has been enough to kill many bills in the Senate.

Filibusters are rarely made on the floor of the Senate, they are done behind the scenes through vote counting.

Just because you don't see Jimmy Stewart speechifying on the floor, doesn't mean filibusters don't happen.

[aquart]

10. Yeah, that'll work. Good grief.