[A] simple majority of the Senate doesn’t cut it
anymore on the more partisan issues.
The standard these days is the supermajority of 60 votes require to stave off a
filibuster. …
Democrats have escalated the use of a parliamentary tactic previously used only rarely: the
filibuster. …
No one is surprised by the harsh and ugly tones coming from the right or the left these days. However, we
all have an obligation to recognize fact and to avoid blatant distortion. The Journals fails in that obligation in the editorial on the
”super-majority” guidelines (also known as Rule XXII or the Cloture rule).
Trusting that readers will simply accept its
pronouncement, the Journal makes no effort to inform, and, in fact, clouds the issue with words like ”anymore,” ”rarely” and
”these days.” These days extend back nearly 100 years. These rules have evolved over a very long time and have seen the influence
of people of diverse views. Indeed, the rules of order are ratified every session by a simple majority.
There was a time when
”conservative” meant favoring tradition and opposing unnecessary change. Now, it means little. It takes 5 minutes on the Web to
learn some history; does the Right assume we are all too lazy or ignorant to care? mjh
Senate Floor Procedures — Establishment of the
Cloture Rule
These practices led to the marathon filibusters by debate that remained characteristic of the Senate into the 1960s.
Senate: Reference Home > Virtual Reference Desk > Cloture
The cloture rule — Rule 22 — is the only formal procedure that
Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster. A filibuster is an attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter.
Under cloture, the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.
and Cloture
Standing Rules of The Senate: RULE
XXII
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/98-
425.pdf
U.S. Senate: Historical Minutes > 1921-
1940 > “The American Senate” Published
[I]n 1925…, Vice President Charles Dawes, a conservative Republican, unleashed
a blistering attack on a small group of progressive Republican senators who had filibustered legislation at the end of the
previous session.
Eight years earlier, the Senate had adopted its first cloture rule, which allowed two-thirds of the senators
present and voting to take steps to end debate on a particular measure. Dawes thought the Senate should revise that rule, making it
easier to apply by allowing a simple majority to close debate. The existing two-thirds rule, he thundered, ”at times enables Senators
to consume in oratory those last precious minutes of a session needed for momentous decisions,” thereby placing great power in the
hands of a few senators. Unless Rule 22 were liberalized, it would ”lessen the effectiveness, prestige, and dignity of the
United States Senate.” Dawes’ unexpected diatribe infuriated senators of all philosophical leanings, who believed that the chamber’s
rules were none of the vice president’s business.
On June 1, 1926, Columbia University professor Lindsay Rogers published a book
entitled The American Senate. His purpose was to defend the Senate tradition of virtually unlimited debate, except in times of
dire national emergency. Professor Rogers fundamentally disagreed with Vice President Dawes. In his memorably stated view, the
”undemocratic, usurping Senate is the indispensable check and balance in the American system, and only complete freedom of debate
allows it to play this role.” ”Adopt [majority] cloture in the Senate,” he argued, ”and the character of the
American Government will be profoundly changed.”
Written in a breezy journalistic style, Rogers’ American Senate
encompassed issues beyond debate limitation. Rogers, Lindsay. The American Senate. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1926
Notice,
that 80 years ago a conservative republican was making the same arguments — against the last of the ”progressive” republicans (now
an oxymoron). mjh
Filibusted – Pirating the Senate. By Brandt Goldstein
Filibustering was rare until the
late 1800s. It then became steadily more common, leading to reform in 1917 when the Senate passed Rule XXII, the procedure for invoking
”cloture,” or closure. According to the original Rule XXII, a vote by two-thirds of the Senate could kill a filibuster, a process
first successfully used in 1919 to ensure a vote on the Treaty of Versailles. An amendment in 1975 reduced to 60 the number of senators
necessary to halt a filibuster. In practical terms, therefore, a filibuster today is possible only if at least 41 senators support it.
Historical Minutes > 1964-Present > Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment”
href=”http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Filibuster_Derails_Supreme_Court_Appointment.htm”>U.S. Senate: Art &
History Home > Historical Minutes > 1964-Present > Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment
[Republican
Minority Leader Everett] Dirksen and others withdrew their support. Although the committee recommended confirmation, floor consideration
sparked the first filibuster in Senate history on a Supreme Court nomination.
On October 1, 1968, the Senate failed to invoke
cloture. Johnson then withdrew the nomination….