ibenez wrote:
]
] The Dems tries to end filibusters a few years ago when they
] had control. So whoever has control can play this card - I
] think they should just end the filibuster or bring the count
] down to 51 votes required instead of 60.
]
] I mean, if you have a majority you have a majority. The
] people elected the Rep's into office and into a majority for a
] reason.

It's good to know you listen to AM radio to get your talking points.

This is of course not historic, and other administrations will try to do something like this again. The rules of the Senate require Senators to work together. But Frist wasn't able to pull it off. But let us pray together for the wisdom to see through partisan bullshit.

The argument that if you "have a majority you have a majority" is valid... in the House of Representatives. Don't believe me? Let's go to the horses mouth:

Article 1 Section 3 Clause 1: states that: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, (See Note 3) for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Article 2 Section 2 Clause 2: [Speaking about the powers of the president] He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

Okay so A1S3C1 basically means that "THIS IS TO PROTECT THE MINORITY RIGHTS". On the House side it's like romper room. Watch some of the stuff on the House floor... it's sorta chaotic; People are queued up to attach admendments to bills; there's a lot of gavel beating and asking the House to come to order; Atmosphere is like a highschool cafeteria. And really it's about majority rule. But here in the Senate everyone is equal. All states are equals. We work thru a method we have called Unanimous Consent. Only by consensus do things happen. They shall work together to build and pass laws.

All things in the senate... all committees and all senate hearings and everything on the Senate floor operate by the principle of unanimous consent. Infact the start of the day requires unamimous consent to even begin. You need unamimous consent to do a roll call for a vote. You need unamimous consent to even begin a vote. (check it out: http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/menu.htm)

Let me digress on one bit of Senate rules I find facinating. There are three times during a bill's lifetime between introduction and passing into law that the bill MUST BE READ IN FULL:
1) When the bill is introduced, before it goes into committee.
2) When the bill comes out of committee and before floor debate on the bill starts.
3) After the bill is is finally passed into law.
Practically all the time a Senator introducting a bill will say something to the effect of, "I ask for unanimous consent to enter into record XYZ bill w/o no further reading.... yadda yadda yadda". With out that unanimous consent how many bills do you think they'd be able to pass? (It get's better cause there are only two people who can read the bills into record. One time some senator did that for an appropriations bill. It took 10 full days to read it into the record. Now if you ask "why should the bill be read in full?", cause at one point not all Senators could read...)

In A2S2C2 notice the 2/3rd's rule. It's scattered throughout the Constitution wrt to votes for admendments and other things... In the Senate we've weakened it a bit by making reducing most things to a 3/5's rule. That's how minority rights are upheld. I would go as far to say that the 2/3rd's rule is the bedrock of our democracy, because it requires a reasonable amount of "working together" to get things done.

When there's not full tilt fighting between the aisles, the Senate has an atmosphere of comity. Senators working together, to be above the sort of yelling and kicking that goes on over in the House side. The Senate tries hard to broker fair deals.

Frist wanted to end that. Frist tried to take all of that away from the Senate. To reduce one of the major checks against tyranny. Frist working along side the Whitehouse tried to strong arm the other half of the Legislative side to bending to majority rule. Thank goodness for reasonable debate. Thank goodness to those 14 Senators that took us out from the brink.

RE: Senators Reach Deal on Filibuster