Conscience of the Senate
Last night, the Conscience of the Senate, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, gave a history lesson on the filibuster and the parliamentary intricacies of the Senate to his colleagues. All Americans would have benefited from hearing this speech. Historians would be humbled by it; the Republican Senators posing in this charade should have been shamed by it.
I called Senator Byrd's office this morning to find out when the speech would be posted as it wasn't up yet. The assistant on the line seemed to be having a good day; she was very polite and asked my name. It was raining in DC, she seemed happy to talk, and I told her how warm it would be in the Springs today. All this chat told me one thing besides the fact the Byrd hires good people: the wingnuts had not been on the attack after his blockbuster speech. We know how they hate Byrd, and if they had the guts, they would've called the Senator to disagree -- but deep down they know he's right, morally ethically and procedurally right.
Here's the speech. The history is fascinating. The absolute correctness of the Democrats' position is undeniable.
Some ineteresting facts that no doubt will be ignored by the philsophical vipers on the right:
- The practice of limiting debate dates to 1604 when Sir Henry Vane first introduced the idea in the British Parliament. Known in parliamentary procedure as the “previous question.”
- The rules adopted by the United States Senate in April 1789 included a motion “for the previous question.”
- By a vote of 76 to 3, on March 8, 1917, after only six hours of debate, the Senate adopted its first cloture rule. (notice the margin of the vote - Z)
- Long speeches and other obstructionist tactics were more characteristic of the House than of the Senate in the early years.
posted by Zappatero @ 3:55 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
From the wonderful Robert Byrd "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" speech, 1 March 2005:
Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men.
But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler’s dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that “Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved intact.” And he succeeded.
Hitler’s originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.
And that is what the nuclear option seeks to do to Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate.
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This reference to the Weimar Republic caused screaming among the right wing - "how dare he mention Nazis?!!! He should resign!" (Santorum said that the remarks were "inexcusable" and that Byrd "should ask for pardon.")
Fast forward to a week ago, there's Santorum, trying to be churlish and look like he's aware of any history prior to last week at the same time:
May 19, Santorum said that Democratic complaints about the "nuclear option" to ban judicial filibusters are "the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying: I'm in Paris, how dare you invade me, how dare you bomb my city. It's mine."
Wow, the gravitas.
BTW, for people who were tracking the endless wrangling of the Republican candidate in the close election, here's the scoop from Seattle: Toss out Felon Vote, Gregoire Still Wins 23 May 2005 Seattle Times. But remember, one of Karl Rove's earlier clients went a WHOLE YEAR with repeated recounts and wrangling until he finally wore them all down so much that he was installed in office.
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