CT Blue

There is a very interesting diary entry today on Daily Kos about the fact that the Republicans are “filibustering” a bill that has already passed, namely the bill adopting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Different versions of the bill have passed each house, and the Republicans are now threatening to filibuster the normally routine question of whether the Senate should appoint a committee to meet with House members to reconcile the bills. The Republicans object to letting federal employees unionize. As more people should know, the filibuster is not what it used to be. In the days of yore, a Senator literally had to put his or her mouth where the money was, but no more:

In the Senate, however, pretty much anything that’s subject to debate is subject to extended debate, and that means it’s subject to a filibuster. What’s more, often all it takes is the threat of a filibuster to make everyone else back off. Nobody wants to have to sit through an actual Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-style filibuster, so the threat of it — in the form of an objection to a unanimous consent request (in this case, to go to conference or appoint conferees) — is all it takes to gum up the works. It’s assumed that the Senator who objects is, if push comes to shove, willing to actually filibuster by holding the floor indefinitely. Rarely is anyone put to the test.

Ahh, there’s the rub. Rarely is anyone put to the test. Recollect, if you will, that the Democrats repeatedly chickened out of filibustering anything, and meekly submitted when they lost a cloture vote. But as the diarist notes, in this case at least, even a successful cloture vote doesn’t end the story:

So that’s what happened today. Republican obstructionists objected to the unanimous consent request that the Senate go to conference on these bills. In order for Dems to call his or her bluff, someone has to make a motion to go to conference. Then, when the Senate begins to debate that motion, the Senator who objected can opt to filibuster right there. Which means that until the Senate votes for cloture (if it can find the 60 votes to do that at all), everything comes to a halt. And at this point, even if cloture is achieved, all you’ve done is agreed to 30 more hours of debate on the question of whether or not to go to conference. Assuming that motion passes, you still need to appoint conferees. And guess what? That’s subject to debate, too. And thus, to yet another filibuster.

The Republicans happily framed the filibuster threat as a violation of the sacred principle of the up or down vote, a principle that has lost its moral force since they lost the Senate. The Democrats were cowed by that argument, and now that the shoe’s on the other foot, they are afraid to deploy it. Moreover, they’re afraid to do something even more radical-making the Republicans put their money where their mouth is. I submit that they should make them filibuster, and then frame the issue as a Republican refusal to vote on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. If the Democrats can’t win that debate in the public forum, particularly given the widespread disgust with the Republicans these days, then they don’t deserve their majority status.

The Democrats have reverted to an earlier time when filibusters always worked-when there was a gentleman’s agreement not to put the filibusterer to the test. That was probably never a good agreement, but given the Republican insistence that the filibuster is only legitimate when they wield it, it is a fool’s bargain. Joe’s Gang of 14 is strangely silent now, they have no problem with the filibuster when it’s a Republican weapon.

My suggestion: Make them come out and identify themselves. Make them tell the nation that they object to implementing the commission’s recommendations. Make them stand spouting blather. Make Susan Collins and her “moderate” ilk go on record either voting to cut off debate, or voting with the mad right wing of their party. Make Joe Lieberman squirm.

My breath is not being held. Despite their majority status, the Democrats have not quite gotten over the battered spouse syndrome from which they suffered over the past 12 years.