Okay, I’m beginning to see less and less point to the Reid filibuster, which truly does seem to put the onus on the Democrats to keep talking, for thirty hours, after which they stop and presumably move on to other business. Is there some way during that time period that they can move the matter to a vote? It looks like all the Republicans have to do is wait them out, which they will undoubtedly do.
Since the Republicans have basically announced that they will filibuster everything of substance, Reid should make them go the distance, which means, apparently, picking one issue and leaving it on the agenda until they cave:
A filibuster can be defeated by the governing party if they leave the debated issue on the agenda indefinitely, without adding anything else to the agenda. Strom Thurmond’s attempt to filibuster the Civil Rights Act was defeated when Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson refused to refer any further business to the Senate, which required the filibuster to be kept up indefinitely. Instead, the opponents were all given a chance to speak and the matter eventually was forced to a vote.
Make them do it again and again. The alternative is surrender to the formerly filibuster hating Mitch McConnell, who has suggested this in response to Reid’s demands for up or down votes:
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to Reid with a counteroffer: an automatic 60-vote threshold for all key Iraq amendments, eliminating the time-consuming process of clearing procedural hurdles. … [A]ll the controversial war-related votes held since Democrats took control of the Senate in January have required 60 “yeas” to pass.
McConnell has essentially proposed a Republican veto on all Iraq legislation, which he can convert to a veto on all legislation as soon as Reid caves. If and when they recover the majority, they won’t miss a beat in threatening the nuclear option. Tonight’s debate is just theatre, unless Reid follows up.
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