McConnell and Buggy Whip Filibusters (Sorry..System Troubles)

The American buggy whip industry was made obsolete by the arrival of Henry Ford's Model Ts. There are political buggy whips, too, and GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in danger of becoming a buggy whip. ~~~~~ But, McConnell has formed a task force to look at reforming Senate filibuster rules, and that may save him from obsolescence. The task force will examine whether filibuster rules should be revised. It's proof that Republicans are pressuring McConnell to do whatever is necessary to get legislation through Congress and on to President Obama's desk. ~~~~~ The Senate filibuster is used by the minority party to stop legislation from proceeding to a Senate vote or to the process of amending legislation before it goes to the Senate floor. Changes to the filibuster rules are being demanded by Republican House and Senate members elected in 2010 and 2012 as conservative reformers, and who are increasingly angry because their GOP congressional majority is unable to break through filibusters by Democrat Senators protecting President Obama from having to veto popular GOP bills. Senator Lamar Alexander, a close ally of McConnell, told The Hill : "We’re going to take a serious look at whether Senate rules ought to be changed in order to make the Senate work more effectively. A number of the new Senators have come in looking around saying, ‘Why are we doing things this way and not that way.'" ~~~~~ Filibusters - continuous speaking marathons - require 3/5 of the Senate (60 votes, called "invoking cloture") to stop the filibuster and proceed to debate on the legislation. In 1789, the first US Senate adopted rules allowing the Senate to "move the previous question," which meant ending debate and proceeding to a vote. Former Vice President Aaron Burr argued in 1806 that the motion regarding the previous question was redundant, had only been exercised once in the preceding four years, and should be eliminated. The Senate agreed, recodified its rules, and the potential for a filibuster was created because the Senate enacted no alternative rule for terminating debate. The filibuster remained theoretical until 1837 when the first Senate filibuster occurred. In 1841, a defining moment came during debate on a bill to charter the Second Bank of the United States. Senator Henry Clay tried to end debate via majority vote. Senator King threatened a filibuster. Other Senators sided with King, and Clay backed down. In 1917, a rule allowing the cloture of debate was adopted by the Democratic Senate at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, after a group of 12 anti-war Senators killed a bill that would have allowed Wilson to arm merchant vessels in the face of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany. ~~~~~ In the past decade, the existence of the filibuster has meant that most major legislation (apart from budgets) requires a 60-vote of all Senators eligible to vote to bring the bill or nomination to the floor for a vote. So, the majority has preferred to avoid filibusters by moving on to other business when a filibuster that has 60-vote support is threatened. The removal or substantial limitation of the filibuster is called the constitutional option by proponents and the nuclear option by opponents - the two positions change depending on which party is the Senate majority. For example, in November 2013, the Democrat-majority Senate under Harry Reid voted, 52 to 48, to require only a majority vote to end a filibuster of certain executive and judicial nominees, not including Supreme Court nominees. A 60-vote majority is still required to end filibusters not related to such nominees. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Majority Leader McConnell refers to Senate tradition to defend the 60-vote filibuster rule. But, Senate filibuster tradition has varied widely. Instead of defending questionable tradition, he should change the rule -- to make the GOP majority functional and support the legislative program the GOP Congress was elected to enact. Otherwise, McConnell may become a buggy whip cast aside by his GOP Senate caucus focused on winning in 2016.