Please educate me.

[Atticus]

As I understand it, IF we could get our 60 "fellow Democrats" to vote with the people, we could just shut down or prevent a GOP filibuster. Healthcare would pass.

Failing this, Healthcare could be sort of "cobbled together" through the reconciliation process, although some of the provisions would be lost. "Healthcare" would be passed.

But, isn't there another way? Couldn't we just LET the SOB's filibuster---while the cameras rolled? And, in 24 to 36 hours, the filibuster would end when some exhausted Republican had to yield the floor---while the cameras rolled. The vote would proceed and healthcare would pass.

I must be mistaken about that third option. SURELY the Democrats would be willing---hell, EAGER---to go this route.

Am I wrong?

[Captain Hilts]

1. Let 'em filibuster with the cameras rolling. I agree. Keep important aspects of the bill. nt

[boppers]

2. Fillibuster rules changed.

A speaker is no longer required during a filibuster.

[Atticus]

3. So, what IS a filibuster? A "time out" that never ends? nt

[Clio the Leo]

5. It's what you're thinking it is.........

..... only they dont have to go non-stop. They can stop for the night and come back.

[Atticus]

7. So, it's a game of "chicken"---who will blink first, while the Senate stands at dead stop

and the business of the nation goes unattended.

Is this an actual RULE of the Senate or is it just an assumption or "practice"? Could it be circumvented?

And, if it can't be circumvented, have we declared in advance that WE are "chicken"? Why don't we "just do it"?

[Clio the Leo]

9. There's the nuclear option.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

What it boils down to is a matter of honor ..... ultimately, either side honors the right of the other to filibuster so imploying the nuclear option is EXTREMLY rare. The GOP used it in 2005 to prevent the Dem filibuster (see, we do it too) of what we considered to be extremist judicial appointments by Pres. Bush.

There's more info here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

(I learned all of this stuff from one Mr. Barack Obama btw, I feel compelled to point that out. If you have not read "The Audacity of Hope" put it on your Christmas wish list.)

[boppers]

6. Effectively, yes.

If a bill "doesn't have the votes", it's effectively filibustered, postponed, dead on the floor.

[Atticus]

8. Excuse me, but I have to ask:

do they still teach that "government of the people" bullshit in public schools?

[boppers]

12. My civics education was *AWFUL*.

I had to learn most of my governmental knowledge on my own.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. I read that was a choice of the Majority Leader.

I believe that Harry can MAKE them speak if he chooses to.

[Clio the Leo]

4. That strategy is what kept Jim Crow alive.....

.... (in addition to what Boppers said.)

When legislation was introduced to protect blacks, Democrats convinced Republicans to join them in their disregard for civil rights and suffrage for blacks. Congressman L.C. Dyer of St. Louis submitted an anti-lynching bill in 1922 that was shelved when Southern Democrats threatened a filibuster in the Senate. Southern Democrats regularly blocked the efforts of a few liberal Congressmen to pass protective legislation for blacks. Republicans continually gave in to the demands of the Southern Democrats, and President Harding (1921-1924) did nothing to interfere, nor did his successors, until the late 1930s.

Through the 1930s, legislative dominance by Southern Democrats was buoyed by strong party allegiance in the south and a weak Northern Democratic party. Legislators were more concerned with passing relief bills for an economically depressed constituency than with helping blacks regain suffrage in the South. Black leaders referred to the New Deal as the "Raw Deal," as blacks' concerns were largely ignored. Roosevelt needed the votes of Southern Democrats to pass relief legislation, and he feared losing Congressional support by introducing any provisions for civil rights.

<snip>

It was virtually impossible for civil rights legislation to get past the Senate in the 1940s and much of the 1950s, as the Southern Senators frequently launched filibusters that killed any legislation challenging the Southern status quo.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/print/p_struggle_congress.html

[jwirr]

11. I remember hearing them go on and on. It was broadcast on some of

the radio stations.