The Senate’s ‘Nuclear Option’: Has the Upper House Reached a New Low?

All I can say is “A POX on BOTH your houses Federal Government!! You’re ALL scum and NONE of you deserve to be re-elected. All of you have played a political game for 3 years and have done NOTHING to IMPROVE the state our Nation is in. And that state is DIRE!!! Wake up and do what you should because you were ALL elected to work for WE THE PEOPLE OF THE USA and NOT for yourselves OR for the WEALTHY!!!

Congressional Republicans need start packing their bags!! We’re cleaning out Congress next election!

They said Republicans have made no secret that their goal is to prevent the president from winning the 2012 election.

This is basic treason. we will do whatever it takes while the restof the country suffers.

Kick them all out of office if they can not do the work we sent them there for.

Tea party get out of the mindset that our way or the highway. It is very childish and as we have seen non-productive.

One of the objectives of the Republicans/Tea Partiers is to generate disgust, frustration and general disillusionment in the electorate (low voter turnout benefits them).

Another is to sow distrust and cynicism about the government in general, and making Congress appear ineffective if a great way to accomplish that.

Think about it; these folks HATE the government. They want to make it “small enough to drown in a bathtub” (and if that is not some violent, disturbing imagery, I don’t know what is). Never mind that the Founding Fathers ESTABLISHED said government and that opposing or actively sabotaging the system set up in the Constitution constitutes TREASON.

This whole “vote them all out” and “beyond parties” meme is designed to result in both widespread cynicism and defection from the polls AND the voting out of effective representatives so they can be replaced by corporate lobbyists. Fact is, there are some VERY significant differences between the two parties and the Founding Fathers intentionally set up our system to be adversarial and to have checks and balances, the better to prevent single-party rule/tyranny.

THINK, people.

Didn’t H.R. go to the White House yesterday to met with B.O. about how to get B.O’s “jabs” bill passed? Guess they decided to run the “nuclear option” play.

There will be no forward movement regarding good legislature until after the 2012 elections. Both parties are at fault. The Republicans focus should be on working with the President in creating jobs and on other important economic issues, not trying to get him out of office. The Democrats need to unite behind their President on important issues and grow some cohones regarding standing up for themselves. We the people are growing weary of hearing of such antics; I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of independents in Congress skyrockets after the 2012 elections.

So much for democracy! If it was a republican president in office it would be the democrats goal to not re elect them so for you whiners saying it was republicans goal to remove BO from office 2012 that doesnt mean anything. Geeze you people really grab at straws here.

This is not the way our country works and Reid should be fired for this. Who does he think he is????This power trip must stop now cause this is dictation plain and simple. He doesnt decide laws they are suppose to vote on them . He has done this twice along with his rechet Pelosi friend. Seems to me they have been in office way to long and need to retire

We get the government we make and we deserve. Anger and polarization is what the majority of Americans want and it’s no surprise that it’s reflected in our representatives. Sadly the only thing that can pull us out of this is someone we all hate more than each other. We need another 9/11 to shock the masses out of their self absorbed and pointless anger.

USA was #1 in manufacturing. Now we’re number 1 at warheads & tools of destruction & lies & deceit. pitiful. lucifer is winning. Not Obama’s fault for trying to make the country greener & more balanced. But the super powers that be won’t let it happen. & america suffers. & the world suffers with it. Greed is not good. That will be our final conclusion.

Soooooo…..How do the dims get it passed in the House??? The Dims will live to regret this stunt.

@billy bob – Then you’ve had your eyes closed for a very long time and ignored completely the action of one half of our 2 party system. You won’t do it, but if you stepped back and looked at your own attitude and what you ignored from the politicians you voted for you would see that it and you are equally at fault. Your own hate for Americans is so great that it’s blinding you to the fact that the country has been self destructing for at least the past 10 years. I’m defending no party but ask yourself what your ‘team’ hasn’t gotten that it asked for. I say ‘team’ because that’s the way people are acting. They expect nothing from the politicians they vote for other than being part of the ‘team’. The only way we can fix our political system is to fix the people who create what it is… us. Take as critical a look at the politicians you voted for as the ones you didn’t. I could easily and factually point out that every complaint you currently have is at least as much the fault of your ‘team’ as the other. But you will excuse one and blame the other because you expect nothing from your own ‘team’.

there should be a big tub of mud on the senate floor so all those goofballs can literally sling it at each other all day long.

With Harry (Scum Bag) Reid as the leader the Senate hasn’t even come close to reaching its low. Remember Obamacare “passing” the Senate? The Budget debacle ? Harry’s got 5 more years so all we can hope for is a Republican senate.

absolutely sickening; and what’s even more sickening is the stubborn attitude of the republicans on this post. Cut the bull. I hope you all end up in the bread line and I’m the one handing out the bread, because I’d let all of you morons starve. You want stubborn. I hope the Dems rip you a new one and I hope Obama wins in 2012, just to show you what a bunch of losers you truly are! You don’t want what’s best for the country because there isn’t an independent thinker among you. You follow like sheep.

memphispiano, using logic in these discussions gets you nowhere. i try all the time and am constantly beaten back by mindless partisanship. i do, however, applaud you for both employing logic and attempting to apply it here…however futile the effort may be. i’m convinced that a large number, if not a majority, of people who post here treat politics like a sport, as if winning the argument is all that matters, regardless of “winning” actually leads to national destruction.

Whatever one’s views on the issue, this article does a poor job of describing it. To say that the “Democrats … used a simple majority to curb the rights of the supermajority” makes no sense at all. Neither party has enough senators to be described as a “supermajority” and, if they did, a simple majority vote could not curb their rights.

What the Democrats are trying to do is to prevent the Republicans (who are in the minority) from using the filibuster to stop passage of any legislation that a majority of senators would vote for. If only one senator filibusters, the Senate can end the filibuster only by a vote of cloture which must pass by a 2/3 majority (i.e., a supermajority). The filibuster can be a useful tool for allowig minority views to be heard. But if the minority party uses the filibuster regularly to stop legislation favored by the majority of the senators chosen by the people, then the that party is thwarting the will of the people & ignoring the results of our elections.

Carol (4:46 PM); I think you missed the whole point of the story. Focus.

Senate low? Not even close. How about the caning of Senator Sumner in 1856 in the chamber. That seems just a bit worse.

I believe the ‘nuclear option’ was used because the Republicans insisted that the Senate’s next vote must be on the Presidents “Jobs Bill” that President Obama insists congress must pass now. Why did the article not mention this fact. PS Thank You Dan Young 9:41 October 7th.

Worse than a low……..an attack on our very system of government, by the Democrats. Posted by: Rick McDaniel | October 7, 2011, 6:19 pm.

LOL! Except that this particular procedural maneuver is allowed under Senate rules. So, according to you, implementing certain Senate rules constitutes an attack on the government. I’d bet good money that if the Republicans did the same thing, y’all on the Right would be cheering them on wholeheartedly……….

The Republicans in the Senate could have avoided this measure by simply voting on the China trade agreement bill WITHOUT trying to attach the jobs bill and the ‘farm dust’ bill to it. They played chicken with Reid and they lost. Now they whine about it. Typical, pathetic, craven weenies…………..

The problem in the Senate is Harry Reid.

Until he’s gone it will remain Kabuki theatre.

The Republicans have said they will do anything to stop Obama from getting re-elected. WHY?

Because the American people want them to. That is what the 2010 elections were all about.

His policies have made things worse.

Yes, there is gridlock – the voters put it there.

Exactly why the framers of the Constitution designed it that way. To stop ineptitude.

Everyone knows now, according to White House press secretary Carney, that it’s political gamesmanship for the Republicans to call Obama on his “pass this bill now” rhetoric. What a hoot.

“So much for Obama being the great uniter.”

You cannot unite two sides if one side absolutely, flat out refuses to compromise or negotiate in good faith with the other side, like the Republicans have been doing since day one…………

“The jobs bill is still there, being ‘tweaked’ by Reid before introducing it as a stand-alone bill. . . . . So how do we all lose by this?” – Searambler

The only way I can see us losing is if they pass the Bill and we flush another 500 Billion down the federal toilet.
Let Harry play with it a while, that’s OK.

It’s not the presidents job to pass legislation. Under the constitution his only responsibility is to enforce the laws Congress passes. Why do we insist that the president take responsibility for this do nothing Congress. He can try to influence and mediate legislation but he can’t force them to move. His only power is derived by the fact that he his the only one elected by the whole country. President Obama his doing the only thing he can do, take his case to the American people and see if he can convince them to make Congress get off their butts.

Obama sent Congress his jobs plan and told them to vote on it. That’s exactly what the Republicans did….they wanted it to be voted on. The dems knew Obama’s plan was DOA so Reid did the only thing he could and pushed the nuclear button. However, it will backfire tremendously after the Republicans take the Senate back as they’ll use it as a weapon of mass payback at every opportunity.

It’s really a shame no one actually reads our constitution or Hamilton’s Federalist Papers that explains the founders motives. The presidency (executive) was intended to be the least powerful branch of our government. The founders did not want a new monarchy.

It’s Congress’s role to actually legislate and solve the problems of the country as a whole. They’ve refused to do their job and expect the president to do it for them.

It reminds me of an old allegory.

There was a kingdom where everyone loved their king. All that was heard from the people was “LONG LIVE THE KING.” One day a witch poisoned the well and the people became insane. They committed crimes and became a real Sodom and Gomorrah. The king, who did not drink the water, tried to stop them. The people began to hate him; they shouted “DOWN WITH THE KING”. The king really loved his people so he went to the well and drank. He became as crazy as they were.

President Obama’s problem is he refuses to drink from the poisoned well.

Tferretti; Some people actually think he is the King. I’m not trying to be a smart a$$ either.

NEWCOUNTRYMAN

What most people fail to realize is the office of the Presidency has very little power compared to the Congress and the Supreme Court. The Presidency gets all the attention because its the most out front branch and the president draws the attention of the press. Its easier to blame one person than a group or groups of politians. The mindless tea party just exaserbated the problem.

As I said the only real power the president has is that he was elected by all the people. The public fails to realize it not his job to solve the problems of this country. Thats the responsibility of Congress, who has failed miserably, playing politics instead of doing what is needed.

BRAINSTORM

Reid, Bohner, Cantor, et al are playing politics at the expense of this country. Its a broken Congress and both sides are to blame.

This is totalitarianism in its ugliest manifestation!
Posted by: brainstormUSA | October 8, 2011, 1:55 pm.

Why? What they did is allowed under the rules of the Senate. So why is it ‘totalitarianism’ in ANY manifestation?

Another problem we have, beside corrupt politians, is the corrupt media. The networks are controlled and operated by billionares and media excutives. It is in their interests to keep this election close. Billions of dollars in ratings and advertising could be lost if the election became a runaway.

When the president makes polical points, the media tears him down an hour later, and vice versa when the republicans make points the media does the same to them.

I’m tired of hearing someone speak and have 20 minutes of pundits telling me what they “really” meant. The press has failed miserably in their purpose of keepimg government honest. They have become part of the problem. The only real news and investigational reporting I get is on the local stations. The main stream media use their sources in the whitehouse or congressional breifing rooms and thnk there doing a hell of a job reporting the truth, not even close.

The anchors and commentators say what the owners of the major communcation companies want them to say. Their careers and salaries depend on it. The news has become entertainment. I don’t care whether I need my prostate examined once every five years, once every ten years, or never. They need to concentrate on real news and get off their butts and work for the truth.

What ever happened to people like Woodward and Bernstein.

The adage “you get the government that you deserve” couldn’t be more true. We elected these guys, most of the time just because of thier party. What bills have your congressmen submitted? When was the last time you looked at the Federal Register? Do you only get your news from TV? We can no longer wait for the “other guy” to hopefully vote the way we would want. So stop your whining, most of you didn’t even vote.

Not since Mussolini and the March on Rome have fascists enjoyed the triumphs they have under the Obama/Reid/Pelosi triad! They have subjugated the American people and in the process destroyed the democratic republic that was founded to grant freedom to the individual. It may already be too late to take this country back and restore the Constitution for the thugs in Congress who do the Democratic Party’s bidding have used a profound form of economic warfare against the people in order to bring them to their knees and break resistance. Now, with the occupation of public space and the attacks by mobs on the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., chaos is being propagated and tolerated as additional savagery in the ongoing battle to crush the will of the Middle Class. All this is obvious to the educated observer and informed Americans will fight back with a fury when they go to the polls!

They have subjugated the American people and in the process destroyed the democratic republic…..Posted by: americaislost | October 9, 2011, 6:52 am.

LOL! No, they haven’t. No one has been “subjugated”, and nothing has been “destroyed”. When did Republicans get into all of this ridiculous, over-the-top hyperbole? Oh right, when the Tea Baggers took control of the Party………..

Since 1980 – 16 times republican senate. 7 times democrat senate. This puts them up to 8. In other words, more faux outrage by the cons as they do it the most and then cry like babies when it’s done back.