Senate Dem leaders float plan for forced filibuster

[sabra]

Source: The Hill

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

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

[endarkenment]

1. Great!

I'm going to start holding my breath as soon as they lock horns.

[Mass]

2. Do not threaten - Do it - Force them to filibuster.

[Renew Deal]

9. Why do they announce this stuff?

It just allows the pukes to prepare.

[rocktivity]

26. How do you know the Dems are announcing it?

Maybe the leaker is the NSA.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Lasher]

3. They'll later apologize.

Hope I'm wrong this time.

[arikara]

20. Probably you're not wrong. Unfortunately... as always

the repukes will look at them and the fainting goat dems will topple over. Clowns.

http://www.youtube.com/v/we9_CdNPuJg&rel=1

[Lasher]

21. That's funny!

They should name one of them Feinstein.

[arikara]

25. And Pelosi...

We need a fainting goat smilie!

[rodeodance]

4. a trial ballon. i will believe it when i see it

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. It'll never happen.

It's all hot air.

[rodeodance]

6. says here that the HOUSE is getting on the Senate's case:

House leaders have been pressing Reid to intensify the fight with Republicans by forcing them to filibuster major bills rather than holding failed cloture votes and criticizing the GOP after bills are pulled from the floor.


That fissure broke into the open last week when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) acknowledged asking Reid to stage more filibusters.


“That is the only way you can give Americans a clear view of who is obstructing change,” Hoyer said.


Reid said Tuesday that if the bridge fund does not pass, the Pentagon can start paying for the war out of its regular appropriation. That $459 billion spending bill passed last week and was signed into law Tuesday. If that’s seen as not supporting the troops, voters should blame Republicans and President Bush, not congressional Democrats, he said.

[Oak2004]

22. I have an interesting Reid story (relevant)

I have an aphasiac friend who I asked recently to give me her impressions of several politicians on CSPAN. If you don't know, people with aphasia are known to often have an uncanny ability to read body language (it's often how they get along in the world to compensate for their weak to absent language skills). My friend has that trait.

She doesn't follow national politics very closely, and didn't know anything about his performance as majority leader). Yet she described him as timid, using the analogy of someone who was occasionally lobbing snowballs over a wall and then ducking and running. He was a nice man, she said, a sincere man, but frightened and timid and often taking a stand, then running away.

When I told her who he was, she was shocked.

Her reaction to Lieberman, btw, was simply "ewwwwww" :)

[IronLionZion]

23. good story, that sounds about right.

I have no doubt about Reid's goodness and sincerity. It's his courage that I am skeptical about.

[rodeodance]

7. “Republicans, I think, would not at all be unwilling to talk about the necessity of supporting the t

But Senate Republicans said Tuesday they believed the strategy would backfire. They warned they would use their floor time to argue that the Democratic-controlled Congress has wasted time on frivolous votes and failed to produce substantive legislation.


“Republicans, I think, would not at all be unwilling to talk about the necessity of supporting the troops by giving them the funding necessary to carry out their mission,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. “If Democrats are going to force us to talk about that, I think they’ll find a very willing partner in talking about it.”


“I think that’s a strategy that’s going to backfire on our Democratic colleagues because the surge has clearly worked,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who sits on the Armed Services Committee, referring to the troop buildup Bush announced in January. “You’d have to suspend disbelief to believe it hasn’t worked.”


Striking a similar note, the White House would almost certainly ratchet up attacks if Congress does not send a bridge fund to the president’s desk.

[Alter Ego]

18. ....

“I think that’s a strategy that’s going to backfire on our Democratic colleagues because the surge has clearly worked,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

W...wha....?

Seriously, I need a hit of whatever Graham's been smoking. If anything, the surge has made things worse.

[redqueen]

8. Let's hope they do.

They need to be ready to effectively counter the "but the surge is working!" crap, though. Hopefully with sound-bitey responses. :)

[Doctor_J]

10. If I had a dollar for every idea they've floated,

I could buy another house.

[RiverStone]

11. Senate Dem leaders float plan for forced filibuster

Source: TheHill.com

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.”





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

---

From further down the story...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week suggested the Senate filibuster fight as an incentive for reluctant liberal House members to vote for her Iraq plan. Her offer came after she attended a meeting of the Progressive Caucus last Thursday to woo votes on the Iraq plan.

So Pelosi offers the filibuster fight as an incentive for reluctant liberal House members to vote for her Iraq plan.

Who is pandering to who here?

[NightWatcher]

12. breaking news: dems fold...again

just give it a second to happen

[nashville_brook]

13. i have to think that there's a "plan" in here somewhere...

all these months of capitulation...it HAS to be leading somewhere. maybe (just maybe) this will be the moment.

[AndyTiedye]

15. The Plan is to Keep Their Phone Calls Off of the Evening News

[Orsino]

14. I think they're sinkers rather than floaters.

But let's see how much intestinal fortitude they have this month.

[ooglymoogly]

16. I think they are high rollers who do not want to lose the flight

that lobbyists provide. Pigeon talk

[rocktivity]

17. LET THEM filibuster, obstruct, and veto to their hearts' content

then let them explain it all to the voters next November. LET THEM keep pulling nails out their '08 platform!

:headbang:
rocknation

[mackdaddy]

19. No more STEALTH Filibusters !

The only thing that makes the cockroaches scurry it to shine a light on them.

[Massachusetts]

24. Ho Hum!

Dems have lost it, we need an new direction.

Save and Enhance The New Deal!

[hvn_nbr_2]

27. Senate Dems float plan for rubber ducky armada.

And Lucy swears that she won't pull Charlie Brown's football out of the way this time.