WHEN WILL GOP “REID HIM THE RIOT ACT” BY REMOVING THIS BUFOON FROM CONGRESS?….RSK
“The sensible answer today is the same sensible answer that held in 2005: Don’t do it. These rules exist and have existed because they’ve made the Senate function better than it would have had they never been promulgated. Change them when it’s expedient for you, and you open Pandora’s box.”
Here’s what you should remember when you read about the battle over fundamentally changing the rules of the US Senate, a battle that will go on despite a deal struck yesterday to avoid a major partisan conflagration this week.
Superficially, the arguments made for change sound as if they’re more democratic than the current system — in which it takes a three-fifths vote rather than a simple majority to move legislation through the Senate, and in which a single senator can block action on a variety of fronts for any reason he chooses.
Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, sounds reasonable when he says “the Founding Fathers wanted an up or down vote” on Senate matters save overriding a presidential veto, approving a treaty or impeaching a president. (For those, the Constitution requires a “supermajority” vote.)
Hypocrite: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was fine with the filibuster when he was the minority leader.
But Reid’s remarks are a historical absurdity. In the first place, the Constitution gives the Senate and the House complete authority over how it works on a day-to-day basis. The language is plain: “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.”
This means, in effect, that the Senate could decide everything would have to be approved unanimously to pass — and that would be entirely constitutional.