Monday, February 09, 2009

The GOP's Filibuster Hypocrisy

By Robert Parry
February 9, 2009

Though seemingly forgotten by most TV talking heads, it was only three years ago, when the Republicans had control of both the White House and Congress – and “filibuster” was a dirty word.

Read on.
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8 comments:

Unknown said...

These are virtual filibusters.

Once Senators would be forced to
talk on and on for hour after hour to shut down the Senate. Some of the most dramatic moments in Senate history involved filibusters.

Now they merely pretend.

A real filibuster would allow the public to see what real obstruction is all about.

The gang of 14 was organized to prevent the Republican leadership from effectively abolishing the
filibuster. Why aren't the Democratic leadership taking or at least threatening to take the step of eliminating the filibuster?

To put all legislation hostage to a virtual filibuster and a 60 vote
super majority is stupid, and we see the result in compromises that
gut the intent of the stimulus package.

Mon Feb 09, 08:08:00 AM 2009
James Young said...

As usual, lies by the moonbat far Left. And as usual, in the service of situational ethics.

Republicans never "railed against even a hint of a filibuster" ... except where it was abused against judicial nominees. Republicans never proposed "a rule change to eliminate the filibuster permanently" ... except where it was invoked against against judicial nominees.

Rail against the filibuster if you want --- a reasonable case can be made that it is anti-democratic --- but don't bolster your case with the fraud that Republicans suggested ending against anything BUT judicial nominees.

Mon Feb 09, 09:32:00 AM 2009
Anonymous said...

Thanks again to Bob Parry for bringing enlightenment of history to the fore. I myself have been thinking about Republican obstructionism to the Stimulus Package in terms of their "nuclear option" threat against the filibuster when they were in the majority.

It wasn't just the nomination of Alito that precipitated that Republican debacle--seriously threatening the greatest of Senate obstruction, to vote to remove forever the filibuster--but the nomination of several other less important but equally right wing judges to various high positions.

Republican hypocrisy is no news, and the mainstream media's pro-Republican bias (as well as hypocrisy) is no news, but we need to be reminded of it all the time, or we have people like James Young perpetuating the same old distortions and blind partisanship that he does above.

Thanks, Bob Parry. No thanks, James Young. I prefer my history with some truth to it.

Bob Locke

Mon Feb 09, 11:14:00 AM 2009
James Young said...

Well, Bob Locke, that you prefer "[your] history with some truth in it" speaks volumes, since you're not entitled to your history, or my history, or anybody else's history. I suppose if your willing to settle for "history" with the misrepresentations and biases of your ideological compatriots, then you deserve what you get. How about just some plain ole' "history"?

If, on the other hand, you prefer history with some truth in it, then you're clearly in the wrong place. The so-called "nuclear option" --- which I supported, unsurprisingly --- was ONLY with regard to Democrat obstruction of judicial nominees. NOTHING else. In fact, I support the filibuster for all other purposes, since it protects important minority rights.

To find hypocrisy here, you have to re-write history. Nothing new for totalitarians, and unsurprising from the totalitarian left.

Mon Feb 09, 12:12:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

Here, here! to Bob Parry.
A modest suggestion for eliminating the filibuster: Each of us demand that our senators vote for filibuster removal from the rules and threaten not to vote for them if they do not comply.
A mass movement such as MoveOn could organize.

Mon Feb 09, 02:36:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

WHY THE BICKERING OVER THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS - - TOO MANY ECONOMIC THEORIES, NOT ENOUGH COMMON SENSE. HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE ECONOMIC THEORIES BEING DISCUSSED IN CHAMBERS AND ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE. AND YOU WONDER WHY BIPARTISANSHIP DOES NOT WORK.



REPUBLICANISM

You have 2 cows. Two cows are inflationary. Give them to the rich and sell the milk to Mexico.

BUSHISM

You do not have two cows. They belong to me and I sold them to buy the White House and the Supreme Court.

OBAMAISM

You do not have two cows because the Republicans stold then. I am trying to give them back, but they would rather you remain poor.

MCCAINISM

These animals are nothing more than diseased mice in disguise - - a trick of the Democrats - - so I suggest we do not feed them and let the die a death they deserve. We could also make them prisoners of war and put them into camps like I experienced in Viet Nam. I survived and so can they if they are real heroes like I am.

RUSH LIMBAUGHISM

These two cows are dirty Democrats and the product of the marriage of liberalism and the New Deal, which we know failed. Let the cows die; I hope they die; they will die if I have my way about it. Tune in tomorrow when I reveal why Obama is not really president, but the antichrist and the personification of evil in black skin. I will also reveal my economic stimulus plan which raises taxes on the middle-class and gives another two-hundred billion dollars in tax break to the wealthest one-percent of Americans. They need the money because they are the only ones who know how to use it so it multiplies and trickles down to the lower classes. This depression is the doing of the Democrats. Let's put the blame where it belongs.

SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS

These cows are a threat to states' rights and a product of the federal government. Let them die and we will raise new white colored ones in the southern states. We need to make the White House a truly white residence, cows and all.

SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM

You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some sour milk.

FASCISM

You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives them to the corporate world.

NAZISM

You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you if you complain.

BUREAUCRATISM

You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then gives the milk away to India where they cannot drink it.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead. Then, you ask Congress to pass a law that they are really alive and still on the accounting books.

UNFETTERED VENTURE CAPITALISM

You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by
your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated
general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island
Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven
cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows,
with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States,
leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. You threaten to go bankrupt, then the taxpayer buys the cows without knowing where they are, if they exist at all..

A FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows and credit for four.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty
times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves. The you charge America five times what they are worth.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch and eat pasta instead of beef.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A CHINESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
Thousands of contaminant poisoning. You arrest the newsman who reported the deaths.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You worship them and starve to death.

A BRITISH CORPORATION

You have two cows.
Both are mad and making Britons mad with them.

FDR NEW DEAL COMMON SENSE

You used to own cows and have a job. Greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street set fire to the money supply and burned the economy to a crisp. Now you have neither a job or cows. Before the government prints new money you put into place policies and laws to regulate capital markets and banks, a system for economic security in old age, a system to help mortgage a home and send people to college, a system to put people to work by building the nation's infrastructure and a system to insure bank deposits. These measures - - what radical conservative Republicans call "socialism" and "liberalism" - - laid the foundation for the strongest economic system in the world, until Reagan and other Republican presidents did away with almost all of FDR's safeguards and policies. As it was in the 1930s so it is now and for the same reasons; namely, unfettered, runaway capitalism pulling the strings of their purchased puppets in Congress.

Mon Feb 09, 04:29:00 PM 2009
Unknown said...

The fillibuster is undemocratic and should be done as in old times or abolished. Now it makes a deliberative body a joke.
Do a Mr. Smith or get rid of it.

Tue Feb 10, 02:45:00 AM 2009
Anonymous said...

Excellent article Mr. Parry -- if the mainstream media were not so financially fawning and scared by blowhards on the right, it could easily juxtapose the video footage of the Republicans from the last 8 yrs against their numerous reversals of the last 2 months, and the hypocrisy would be so obvious and repeated that even the James Youngs of the world would be ashamed to admit their allegiance to such a crass, morally corrupt party.

For additional reading on the same lines, 'The Wrecking Crew' by Thomas Frank is an excellent, readable current expose of these Republicans.

Tue Feb 10, 11:33:00 PM 2009

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