On Dec 13, 2008, at 12:38 PM, Marty Hart-Landsberg wrote:
Could someone help me out on the recent vote for funds for the
automakers. I read that the democrats in the senate gave up the
effort because they didn't have the 60 votes necessary to end a
filibuster.
But how did this really work I guess my question concerns the
workings of the American political system was there an actual vote
where a majority voted for the bill but not 60? Or was there just
a determination by the democrats that there would not be 60 votes
for the bill so there was no vote. Or did the republicans threaten
a filibuster if the democrats tried to move to a vote and the
democrats decide not to call a vote to override it or . . .
Apologies for such simple questions but I am confused. According
to the paper "The measure was defeated 52-35 on Thursday night in
the Senate when it fell short of the 60 votes it needed." So, it
seems like the measure passed. Where does the filibuster enter in
here, when would it have happened, and why did the democrats just
give up without a formal test--or was that what the vote was?.
Thanks,
Marty Hart-Landsberg
According to the arcane rules of the US Senate (universally known as
the World's Stupidest Deliberative Assembly), its members can keep
blathering forever about anything or nothing until a vote to limit
talking (known as "cloture) is passed with the 60 votes required by
this Rule. The 35-52 vote was on a "Cloture" resolution. But the
Dumbocrat Senators were in a hurry to go home for Christmas and had no
desire to make the 35 Repugnicons expose themselves to public ridicule
and humiliation by forcing them to keep their mouths open for 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, until exhaustion and public scorn would
force them to allow a vote. In fact, since the Civil-Rights era the
Dumbocrats have never had the guts to force a real filibuster. The
charade is this: The House passes a bill favorable to the Dumbocrats
workingclass base; the Senate "begins" debate; a "Cloture" motion
fails to get sixty votes; the bill is dropped from the agenda (or
passed as a rotten "compromise" requiring reconciliation with the
House version in a "Conference Committee" plus new "debate" and votes
in both Chambers) and never heard from again. The perfect alibi for
doing nothing.*
The new Senate, starting in early January, will still have 41 or 42
Repugnicons. We will not be able to regard Obama as a *serious*
political leader and not just another Dumbocratic clown until he
forces and breaks a real filibuster instead of capitulating or
compromising.
Shane Mage
This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
kindling in measures and going out in measures."
Herakleitos of Ephesos
*"A Senate, time's worst statute unrepealed..." (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
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