Filibuster 101: The Case For Extending The Census Employment Bubble

Hi,

A quick late-ish night post with some late breaking news about the oil spill ...

If you're anything like me, you love a good pair of flip flops. I'm here to tell you that today I purchased the best pair of flip flops I've ever had. Operative word being best. I say that because you and I both know that I already told you that I bought them today. What I didn't tell you then is that the $1.00 flip flops I bought today are the best I ever had. That's what makes best the operative word. And of course it's just further fodder and/or grist for the grill for drill, drill, drill, drill baby drill because we all know that the best flip flop you're ever gonna get ain't gonna cost 50 cents if it's made from hemp. Pure petroleum. That's what they're made of.

Oh, and for all you people who have been working for the census and are wondering about how many weeks you're gonna be able to go to yoga 5 times a day as part of the $405 club, I just learned a little tidbit about a certain Senator that one would assume would have been the filibuster blocking vote in the debate over extended unemployment insurance. And I quote ... with a bunch of sentences that can be clicked on to take you to the actual article I was just reading after walking to the fourth place I've stayed since my apartment burned down wondering why it was that everything in the US Senate is filibustered but no one actually has to actually filibuster and thus stop the government from working thus making it a really freaking big deal to filibuster:

The major change in Senate rules that made possible the modern filibuster occurred under the leadership of Robert Byrd during his first stint as Majority Leader. Byrd introduced the concept of "dual tracking" under which the Senate could have two or more bills under floor consideration at any one time. Prior to this change, a filibuster ended floor consideration of all other bills until the one being filibustered had been disposed of. No appropriations, no nominations, no unanimous consent agreements, no nothing. All Senate business came to a dead halt during a filibuster, which raised the stakes on the members conducting the filibuster exponentially. The pressure that would be brought to bear if the entire Senate ground to a halt was one of the reasons filibusters were so rare.

Once Byrd changed the rules to allow dual tracking, filibusters became almost pain free. A Senator simply had to announce they intended to filibuster and the Majority Leader would use his dual track authority to move to other business and get around the road block. Over time, most leaders simply did a whip check and declined to schedule a bill if a filibuster was possible..

The dual-track authority is a fairly big piece of the puzzle. But the question, in part, is why it's been allowed to stand. Both Hill experts and political scientists argue that the reason, basically, is that the Senate has things to do. The frequency of the filibuster means that ending the dual tracking would be the same as shutting down the government. It would be a high-stakes showdown over a Senate rule change, which is not something that many in the Senate have evinced much interest in attempting.

But this is how the filibuster was normalized into a 60-vote requirement. Byrd responded to the slight uptick in filibusters by making it much easier and cheaper to filibuster, rather than leading a fight to make it much harder to filibuster. But he saw that as streamlining the process. It's not like the minority was going to filibuster everything. It just wasn't done.

Robert Byrd. Come for the apologies about youthful indiscretions. Stay for the inability to actually make people do what it is they say they are doing.

Mwah!

M

P.S. This new digital representation of an album's worth of musical ideas from LCD Soundsystem that I stole through Vuse is pretty cool.

P.P.S. Yeah, there's a few Talking Heads moments.

P.P.P.S. But I really like Talking Heads so I guess I don't really care that much.

P.P.P.P.S. Go ahead. Arrest me.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Andy has stage fright about The Old Fashioned Ladies Club.