« Aw, Too Cool! The Unredacted Motion to Compel Obama's Testimony |
Main
|
More on That Motion: It's Officially Interesting »
April 22, 2010
Democrats Seek To Eliminate Filibuster So They Can Jam Through Their Radical Agenda In Their Last Months Of Power
So far this is only on the GOP's Senate blog:
Senate Democrats Gather In The Rules Committee To Eliminate The Filibuster, Which They Previously Called One “Of The Most Treasured And Cherished Traditions Of The United States Senate.”
I don't know how serious this is. I thought -- maybe wrongly -- that it takes two-thirds to change the rules of the Senate, so this might just be posturing by the Democrats (and posturing of outrage and dire consequences by Republicans).
I don't know. Asking Jack now.
It's Possible: enoxo writes:
Senate rules require 67 votes to change the rules of the Senate. However, it’s actually quite possible for 50 Senators—if backed by the Vice President—to have elements of existing procedural deemed unconstitutional.
The US court system neither will nor should rule on things like the constitutionality of a de facto supermajority rule. But this is precisely why you have a President of the Senate (i.e., a Vice President) and I think it would be perfectly plausible for Joe Biden to say that by specifying supermajority voting for certain purposes (treaties, veto overrides, constitutional amendments) the constitution is clearly assuming majority rule for other purposes. Then it would take a majority of Senators to back up Biden’s ruling. And low and behold, a return to majority rule
Ah. So they're just going to have the Vice President start declaring things unconstitutional?