As a new member (of Parliament) you will also be instructed in the details of what is expected from you as a backbencher…. It will be made clear to you that your role in the decision-making process is to raise your hand when you are told to and to occupy your seat in the house when it is required.
You don’t go for a vote in the Security Council unless you know that you have the votes to win.
Between yea and nay, how much difference is there?
And, as you recall, last year, people were asking us, don't vote on the bill until you read every part of the bill. So, as a good attorney and as a good legislator, I think it's my responsibility to read the amendments.
Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have ballot after ballot before there was a final nominee.
Let's pretend six people live in your house. And you propose that only four people get to eat every day, and you put it to a vote. If four people vote that only four people get to eat, two people don't, that prevails. That's what a democracy is. It's strictly majority-minority rule.
When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'
If you know an amendment [you are opposed to] will pass you don't want a roll call [vote] because that makes it [the amendment] harder to drop in conference.
Cloture is simply cutting off debate.
If the ballot doesn't work, we'll try something else. But let us try the ballot.
I am of the opinion which you have always held, that "viva voce" voting at elections is the best method. [Lat., Nam ego in ista sum sententia, qua te fuisse semper scio, nihil ut feurit in suffragiis voce melius.]
If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage. Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill.
