Cost of the Hagel Filibuster

[MoFinz]

Meanwhile, both sides get to put off doing anything meaningful while giving the appearance of actually working.

Which has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.......BRILLIANT!
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[MoFinz]

If this was a quarter of a century ago, when "borking" was coined, i might agree.

Never before has a President had a Cabinet nominee blocked. Couple this with the 3-4 times as many filibusters since the GOP became the minority, and id happy to give the GOP the award for unprecedented obstruction. And the way they brag about it, theyd probably accept. If you want to hang onto what happened during Reagan's term to justify whats currently happening, by all means. But its attitudes like that that develop this kind of broken government. The current Republican party is not the same as the one from the 80's. Neither is the current Democratic party. Im treating them like different entitees. If we were going by just the names used, then Lincoln would be talked about more on here.

Anyway you cut it, this would normally set a bad precedent. But like i said before, the GOP is right to see no downside to this. Democrats wont retaliate when Obama's term is up(at least not in any real way). It has nothing to do with some nobility, but the fact that they lack testicular fortitude.

It is petty. But exactly how many republicans did the President, Reid and Pelosi bring into the ACA discussions?

Oh yeah, none. They didnt need them or want them. So, now the GOP can say "See? They had all the power and look what they did. We have to be vigilant now that we can stop them from enacting terrible legislation, simply because they can and will do it again."

Both sides neet to be reigned in. I'd vote every one out and put new people in, but until you fence in special interests, it'll just happen over and over again.

[Spesh]

Not true. Another Sen. John Tower was the first (?) cabinet nominee to be blocked for Secretary of Defense in 1989. The replacement later confirmed by Democrats as the right man for the job elevating him on the national stage...Representative Dick Cheney from Wyoming.

Hagel choice is similiar to the Tower bad choice...a Senator with a lot of enemies in the Senate clubhouse. Possibly the Senate getting out maneuvered again politicaly. Bring up a 2nd choice that's not liked...but at least Cheney/x isn't no Tower/Hagel....and everybody pats themselves on the back on really getting the best choice all along in Cheney/x. The x choice must be a real whopper given all the rhetoric divested in this as "unprecedented" and never has been done before...although to much of this spin and it may backfire.

Good catch, what i wrote was wrong. I should have been clearer when saying "blocked": this was the first time a Cabinet nominee has been filibustered. Tower was defeated in a vote 53-47(or something like that). Republicans demanded 60 votes for Hagel.

[Eshlemon]

Good catch, what i wrote was wrong. I should have been clearer when saying "blocked": this was the first time a Cabinet nominee has been filibustered. Tower was defeated in a vote 53-47(or something like that). Republicans demanded 60 votes for Hagel.

Others have also been filibustered but this is the first to not get 60 votes or have deals reached before a cloture vote comes up. So it is unprecedented in that regard, this is the first successful filibuster of a cabinet nominee. Even so with this, odds are Hagel will still get appointed. In the Senate's long history of filibustering executive nominees, only 17 where not eventually confirmed.

[DeathStar]

It's all for show...He will get confirmed.

[DeathStar]

And he got his 60th vote today...See, it was all done to whine/bitch/complain...

[Spesh]

And he got his 60th vote today...See, it was all done to whine/bitch/complain...

Which is exactly whats wrong with Washington today.

It was a common sense, no brainer vote. Instead they had to jump through hoops, rhetoric, outright bullcrap, and their addiction to abusing legislation maneuvers. There was no reason why this couldnt have been taken care of days ago.

Even today, the day they got the 60th vote, the GOP sent a letter to the White House asking to withdraw Hagel. Such pettiness.

edit: and before someone brings up semantics, i believe GOP members might have sent the letter yesterday or the day before. The reponse was today.

[COphinphan89]

I think they have enough Republican support now to get him to 60 even without the two Independent senators one of whom is the avid socialist Bernie Sanders from Vermont who votes with the Dems.

While the GOP senators made utter fools of themselves over a routine procedure, no one will come out of this with more egg on their faces than breitbart.com, namely Ben Shapiro who ran a story that generated a ****storm of controversy and hysteria among the anti-Hagel campaign over the purported pro-Hagel group "Friends of Hamas" that doesn't actually exist.


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Combine that with the other rumblings on Fox, AM radio, and RedState about certain comments he never made and its little wonder how the rabidly anti-Hagel camp defeated their own cause. I'm no Democrat, but it's too difficult to not stop and marvel at such a startling display of dishonesty, irresponsibility, and incompetence.

[GoFins!]

All the dishonesty, irresponsibility, and incompetence our federal government has exhibited over the decades and THIS petty bickering makes you stop and marvel? I guess my only question would be .... What made you recently begin paying attention to the antics of our federal government?

[DeathStar]

And presenting your Secretary of Defense...

So much for the GOP/Talk Radio/Neocon hissy fit...
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