Filibusters Quotes
He was right. Even the vaunted Southern Filibuster was broken by the strategy and tactics Johnson and Senator Humbert Humphry, the Floor Leader for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.
The word, “filibusters” is a noun referring to irregular mercenaries. The term took on a more specific meaning in Parker’s day. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the term as “Americans engaged in stirring up rebellions in Latin America in the mid-19th century.” This is the meaning in the Parker quotation.
In 1964 LBJ’s Civil Rights Bill was stalled in the Senate and was being filibustered by a coalition of conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats. Johnson needed the conservative Republican Minority Leader’s support to break the filibuster and allow a vote. Dirksen changed his position and broke the filibuster allowing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to pass.
See {588514} for an additional take on the subject.
The Senate had always been more deliberative than the House, but at the time Alexander made this statement, his party—the minority in the Senate—had filibustered most of all the legislation, There were more filibusters than had occurred in the entire pure history of America.
The historian was comparing Obama to other historical presidents who either had a majority of both Houses of Congress or had an opposition party that was generally quite cooperative and willing to compromise for the sake of running the country smoothly. At this point in time there was a Tea Party wing of the Republican that was particularly negative and obstructionist. They tended to threaten and intimidate the main stream Republicans who used the filibuster to block legislation the majority of Senators had voted for more times than all the other Congresses in American history. And that was only in Obamas first 6 years.
Most of the Republicans in the Senate, using the filibuster, blocked legislation making schools and streets safer by expanding the requirement for gun checking to keep mentally ill people and violent criminals from purchasing a gun. The legislation had been crafted by Republican and Democratic Senators and was supported by 90 percent of Americans including 80 percent of Republicans and the majority of hunters and gun owners. This was one of the rare instances where public opinion did not matter at all to the Congress, and while a majority of the Senators supported the legislation a significant minority was more in fear of the NRA and the Gun lobby than they were of the voters. To the Republican minority, the possibility of a mentally deranged, violent, convicted felon, should be allowed to buy a military style assault rifle or any other weapon at a gun show without anyone bothering to check his background was less desirable than requiring gun sellers to spend 3-5 minutes to check out the potential buyer.
When asked if he could speak for an hour to assist with a filibuster:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was bitterly opposed in the senate by Southerners who had filibustered continuously. After months of debate a critical cloture vote was taken against a Senate tradition which had never voted cloture on a civil rights filibuster. Every vote was critical. Senator Engle was dying from a brain tumor, and could not walk or speak. When the vote for cloture was taken, Engle was wheeled into the Senate chamber, and in what may have been the most eloquent, poignant, creative vote in Senate history, pointed to his eyes. The vote was recorded as:. The Aye's narrowly won. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.
Despite having passed the House and a majority of the Senate favoring McCain’s bill, a filibuster was led by a few holdouts from his own party. Patiently, McCain assembled sufficient Senate support to break the filibuster.
Lott and other Republicans who objected to Democratic Filibusters of a few judges. Later in the Obama administration he and Republicans had no problem when the Republican Senate minority filibustered just about everything—nominations, laws, budgets, treaties. They had more filibusters in that Congress than there had been in all of Senate history. It is always an issue of whose ox is gored with rampant hypocrisy on both sides in dealing with the filibuster concept. However, no majority in recent years has tried to change the filibuster, though the majority always complains about it.
In 2007 the Republicans, who were in the minority, began to use the filibuster to a degree that it had never been used. Within the single year of 2007 Republican’s filibustered 62 times, doubling the highest rate that had occurred before. A small minority of senators were able to block legislation that easily passed the House and was supported by the majority of senators and in some cases supported by the overwhelming majority of the American Public.
Explaination of why he threatened to block Senate approval of an appointment he favored in order to achieve another political objective.
This is especially true in the Senate, where there not only is the filibuster available to the minority but there are “holds” where a single senator can anonymously stop certain processes such as conformations of appointments and a number of other arcane techniques allowed by Senate rules.
