So why not force the Republicans to show their hand - to appear on the floor of the Senate and talk to death bills that the public wants? Simply bring a bill to the Senate floor (Harry Reid can still do that), force the Republicans to talk around the clock to block it, call a “cloture” vote to end debate and vote on the bill (which requires 60 votes to succeed), and lose - with a majority of senators, all Democrats, voting to bring the bill to a vote.
And when they’re done with that one, bring up another, and another, with the same result.
Agreed, this doesn’t sound like bipartisanship. But there has never been bipartisanship in this Congress, and at this point it’s more important for Democrats to demonstrate that they are fighting for legislation that people want than it is for them to play along with that treacherous myth.
from “Filibuster might cut both ways” by Harry K. Schwartz (2/16/2010, Philadelphia Inquirer). Click HERE for full op-ed.
My uncle wrote this op-ed. It ran today. The bio at the end mentions my uncle’s time as a Senate aide and his service in the Carter Administration. What goes unmentioned is that he used one leather briefcase during most, if not all, of his legal career. He oiled it, I think, to keep it looking beautiful. When I was about 12, he and I sat on his family’s deck one evening while he did all his regular upkeep on the briefcase. I basked. It seemed to me the essence of everything that was enviable and honorable about being a grownup.
