Senator Hold
I can’t understand why Harry Reid is still the Senate Majority Leader when he is so weak and he allows things like this to continue:
Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-AL) office has confirmed to TPMDC the reports that Shelby has placed a hold on President Obama’s nominees over a pair of government programs set to be based in Alabama. He did not confirm that Shelby has taken the rare step of blocking all of Obama’s nominees, as was reported yesterday.
“Sen. Shelby has placed holds on several pending nominees due to unaddressed national security concerns,” Shelby spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement. “Among his concerns” are the progress on multi-billion dollar defense contract that would see planes built in Mobile, AL and Obama’s decision to scrap a $45 million FBI improvised explosive device lab Shelby secured an earmark for in 2008. (emphasis added)
At the very least, Reid should make Sen. Shelby get up and actually filibuster like they used to in the old days.
If I understand correctly–which, admittedly, is far from certain–making Shelby actually filibuster would be much harder on the Democrats than on the Republicans (assuming–reasonably, I think, since not a one has yet said they’ll offer the sixtieth vote for cloture that would end his ridiculous stunt–that the Republicans would support him): the filibustering party merely has to have one person on the floor continuously, while the party hoping to break a filibuster always has to have their votes in the chamber, ready to vote to close debate the second they get the opportunity.
As a Democrat, I’m not surprised that Reid hasn’t choked this off yet, in part because I’m not sure he’s got the sixtieth vote in hand, but more because Shelby couldn’t have given him a better gift, if he and the party will make use of it. We’ve been trying to point out the ridiculous nature of Republican obstructionism for more than a year now, but we’ve (largely because we as a party aren’t very good at this sort of thing) failed to get the public to understand. Shelby’s stunt is so ridiculous, so patently inappropriate, that it offers us the best chance we’ve had to drive home the point that the current minority in the Senate is dedicated to nothing but frustrating attempts at governance.
“At the very least, Reid should make Sen. Shelby get up and actually filibuster like they used to in the old days.”
How would he do that under current Senate rules?
Couldn’t he have started this BEFORE the Bernanke vote?
DeMint (R-SC) did things like this out of principle. Shelby is just going to push the hold technique into further disrepute, which is sad, because it has been used for good in the past, and could be again in the future if there were fewer like Shelby and more like Coburn and DeMint.
Can “holds” be broken by 60 votes like a filibuster? I thought holds stopped the nomination from being formally submitted to the Senate – which is before the “debate” and thus before any votes are taken on the nominee.
@ tz: “Couldn’t he have started this BEFORE the Bernanke vote?”
Ha ha! Indeed.
With the bailouts of banks and auto companies, it’s a little odd that people are excited about Shelby’s “hold up”. He’s elected to represent Alabama’s interests, and this helps Alabama. Why should banks and auto companies rob the till and not Senators who represent ACTUAL states in Congress?