You could almost hear the cries of relief and jubilation from MSNBC over the decision made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to rewrite the rules of the Senate. ?Harry finally “Gave ’em Hell!” It’s a different?Harry,?but the saying works so I’ll use it.
There is no doubt that the Republicans have acted dishonorably and have violated both the spirit and the intent of the filibuster. ?As this chart shows:
‘Nuff said!
The chart above doesn’t even address the hundreds of other filibusters on every issue and every bill that comes before the Senate. The Republicans have intentionally ground the functioning of our government to a halt. ?Since President Obama took office, the Republicans have “invoked cloture” more than 400 times. Even if the filibuster fails, that doesn’t seem to be the point. The whole act seems to be one of slowing down government and making the system fail. It was in December of last year that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)?filibustered his own bill. So, the Republicans created a crisis that required a drastic response. Right?
It is easy to find example after example of how the Republicans have acted badly. It is easy to use the math to show that something had to be done.
But why now?
It’s not like Harry Reid wasn’t asked, begged, and pleaded to?change the rules at the beginning of the session. That is the moment when a simple majority vote is enough to change the rules without it being called the “nuclear option.” Then, it’s just the rules, and that’s fair. What Senator Reid did, even though it was a reaction to extraordinary circumstances, wasn’t fair. The Republicans have once again been brought back from the brink of irrelevancy by a Democratic Party that just won’t let these fools hang themselves with their own rope.
Remember this from the 24th of January this year?
Progressive senators working to dramatically alter Senate rules were defeated on Thursday.
A quick search will reveal dozens more stories, much along the same lines. This was in January of THIS year after the Republicans had already filibustered more than 300 bills already. These “progressive senators” were defeated by Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, working together to keep the Senate not working. Harry and Mitch, who are close friends, cut a deal to maintain the disaster the Senate had become. Bloomberg even referred to them as, “public enemies and private friends” which is a fancy way of saying the “public enemy” thing is all an act.
Well, as usual, whenever one of the old white guys who work for the corporate masters who really run the place get into trouble, they pull out all the stops. Let me say in advance that I think Senator Reid was more than justified in changing the rules. He would have been more justified after the first two years of President Obama’s term, and even more so after his re-election. Everyone but Harry Reid seemed to know that the Republicans were gumming up the system, and the one fair time to change the rules is when the new Congress convenes — a time that Mr. Reed let pass. At a time when the majority of the country blames Republicans for shutting down the government, voter ID, and as the list of Republican disaster rolls on, Mr. Reed has given the Republicans a great big lifeboat of an issue to raise money, change the subject of our political conversation in this country, and in short, win.
So why now Harry?
Is it possible that your private friend was in trouble? Maybe even in danger of losing his seat? Well, Harry can fix that! By pulling a stunt worthy of a Republican, Harry Reed has given Mitch McConnell something to run on, and win on. ?That seems like it would be just fine with his buddy from Nevada.
ALLEGEDLY.
This has been a Conspiracy Corner with your host Christopher Hull. I’m not sure I believe the above story is true but considering how cynical and self-serving politics has become would you be surprised more if it were true, partially true, or not true? No matter which it wouldn’t be much of a shock and that’s part of the problem.
Which is why I support Russell Brand’s preferred candidate:
REVOLUTION 2014!
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Edited by MB
