Senate Rules Committee chair Charles Schumer, one of the three Senators with a chance to be Majority Leader next year, opened a series of hearings on filibuster reform in the Senate today:
Committee Chair Chuck Schumer has said he wants to reform the minority's ability to endlessly obstruct and delay, and committee member Tom Udall has vowed to raise a point of order at the beginning of the next Congress allowing for the Senate to create their own rules rather than carry them over from the last Congress. He believes that this "constitutional option" would only require 50 votes. Schumer, for his part, may be Majority Leader next year, and not only him but current Majority Leader Harry Reid and rival for the position should Reid lose re-election Dick Durbin have called for Senate rules reform. So something will happen next year, it's mainly a question of what. And this hearing should give us the first insight into that process.
The committee already adjourned today's hearing, to provide a five-day period for witnesses and Senators alike to submit more comments. Another hearing is scheduled for next week.
McConnell was resistant, saying that Democrats are simply frustrated they cannot amass 60 votes to move legislation, and blaming Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for the situation by blocking Republicans from offering amendments.
"This is not about reform," McConnell said. "It's about a political party that cannot do what it wants, whatever it wants, in the way it wants to do it."
Yeah, whatever McConnell. Pot. Kettle. Black:
Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell said yesterday that Republicans have enough votes to invoke the "nuclear option" to limit Democrats' ability to stall by filibuster consideration of President Bush's nominees for federal appeals courts.
The simple truth is that filibuster reform is inevitable at this point. In the extended entry, I explain why.
There are two main reasons why procedure reform, and even the eventual destruction of the filibuster, is inevitable in the Senate:
Democrats on board with it. Senate Democrats of all stripes are on board with reform. As already mentioned, all three potential Majority Leaders in 2011 have called for reform. Further, conservative Senate Democrats are actually just as, if not more, supportive of reform then progressive Senate Democrats. Yet further, even the oldest, long-serving Senator, the one who helped write current Senate rules, is open to the idea:
Senate President Pro Tem Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), also a senior member of the Rules Committee, submitted a statement for Thursday's hearing that fell somewhere in the middle between Schumer and McConnell, saying that reform could become reality. He also noted that the Senate's filibuster rules have been changed multiple times, such as in 1975 when the threshhold for a successful cloture vote was lowered from 67 to 60 votes.
"I have long revered the rules and precedents of this body, but I have also championed reforms when I thought them necessary," Byrd said. "We should remain open to changes in the Senate rules, but not to the detriment of the institution's character or purpose."
Senate Democrats have had enough of Republican willingness to push every envelope, and use whatever procedural means necessary, to block legislation and nominations. Reform of some sort will happen in early 2011.
Republicans will respond in kind. During 2009-2010, Republicans have consistently demonstrated their willingness to use whatever procedural means necessary to get their way in the Senate. Along the way, they have whipped their base into a fervor over the "totalitarian" procedural tactics used by Democrats. And, lest we forget, Senate Republicans narrowly missed abolishing the filibuster altogether in 2005.
What this all adds up to is that, when Republicans once again control the White House and the Senate (which is inevitable), they will get rid of the filibuster (assuming it still exists in some form) the instant Democrats use it to block a major item on the Republican agenda.
Does anyone seriously think that Republicans will, when faced with Democratic obstruction in the form of Senate procedure, simply through up their hands, declare Senate tradition to be sacred, and either make concessions to Democrats or just give up on their agenda? That's frakking absurd. Whatever means of obstruction that Democrats leave in place after the 2011 reforms will be wiped away entirely once Republicans regain the White House and the Senate in 2012, 2016 or 2020.
Senate procedural reform is an inexorable process. The days of the filibuster are numbered. The only question is how many steps there will be in the process, and what form each step takes.
STATE BLOGS
