Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), says that Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) has placed a hold on all pending nominations now before the Senate. He says there are now “several dozen” nominations on the Senate calendar.
This is his response to the deal he cut in return for his consent to proceed on the ‘one-month extension to unemployment benefits and other programs.’
It’s actually the best thing that could happen to have Jim Bunning, who is so cantankerous that his colleagues forced him into retirement, making the case for scrapping the filibuster. I hope he keeps it up all year.
Time to recess appoint everyone en masse. No more games, Mr. President.
So we get rid of the filibuster.
Then we lose the Senate/House at some future point.
Then what?
I hope we tweak the rules to make it simpler to pass legislation and harder to block it. But I don’t want to be the ‘useful idiots’ who remove protections so the Republicans can run their hand later….
When Democrats lose the House, Senate and White House, sometime after eliminating or weakening the filibuster, Republicans will be able to pass legislation with a majority vote.
Most likely, they’ll be in a position similar to Britain’s Conservative Party, which is now campaigning on their strong support for the National Health Service.
The filibuster is meaningless when a Republican is President anyway. Too many Blue Dog/DLC types will willingly go along with whatever the Republicans want.
Ezra Klein has made a pretty comprehensive case against this idea:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/11/the_small-d_democratic_case_ag.html
But seriously: Bunning, what a huge jackass.
He’s winning, isn’t he? Reid, Durbin, Obama and the rest must never have had to deal with bullies as children. You don’t give in. Ever. You take your punishment and keep spitting in their face until you pass out from the punishment, but you NEVER give in. That’s what I learned on the streets of Mother Chicago and although I came close to dying, I never surrendered. I’m ashamed that I voted for these gutless wimps.
Not necessarily. He just capitulated on the unemployment benefits hold. And as Booman pointed, pulling a Shelby doesn’t help anyone but the Dems, in terms of building the case for ending the filibuster.
As Lisa has pointed out above, that is a two-edged sword.
Although yes, Bunning did “win” in terms of fucking over hundreds of thousands of people who won’t get their unemployment checks this week.
Exactly! He is a classic bully. Or perhaps “pathological” would be the better term. Capitulation only whets their appetite for causing more pain.
If that was his “win,” it was the Republicans loss. And they know it. It was the Republicans that got him to relent.
It’s just too bad the media and the Dems keep treating this as one crazy guy instead of just another instance of GOP obstruction. But at least maybe even the thickest will finally see that the Senate’s stupid preening needs to be scrapped and replaced with a modern and democratic procedure.
No… he really is one crazy guy. Not even the Republicans wanted this. They know it’s ammo against them.
So why did so many Republicans back him? Isn’t it telling what Republicans didn’t back him? Susan Collins. Even she knew it was a bridge too far otherwise she couldn’t maintain her faux “centrist” image.
Some Republicans backed him, I don’t know how many. I believe they were pandering to the teabaggers, because the tb’s like Bunning.
It’s over (for now):
Bunning relents; jobless benefits deal reached
It seems to me that because the Republicans were so lockstep it was harder not easier to tag them with the obstruction label. Part of the “they both do it” syndrome. But with Bunning there is a poster child for senatorial abuse and in all things Bunning – he takes it over the top – and he is just another Republican.
If the Democrats want it they can make him a poster child for all the obstuctionism and make the point that he is just another Republican. Kinda like the Reagan I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Only substitute government with Republican and let them make the point ths is how they help.
Why the Dem caucus and Obama don’t make evey member of the GOP either disavow or stand up for Bunning I don’t know.
But that’s why they are Democrats I guess.
As I understand it, a number of individual GOP senators, as well as the two Republicans primarying for his seat in KY, have all stood up for Bunning and said he is right. That was a big mistake on their part. Probably pandering for the Tea Party vote. Because apparently Bunning’s act has gone over well with the Teabaggers. That tells you something right there.
Here’s what it tells me: wherever there are enough of them, the Teabaggers are going to split the Republican vote while remaining fringy enough not to make a great difference. It suggests to me that no matter how badly the Democrats seem to be doing, the Republicans are doing considerably worse.
they need to hold him accountable. period. they should have forced him to filibuster.
I agree, one republican Senator talking in an empty Senate while American Families suffer.