60 Hours, 29 minutes and Counting of Continuos Filibustering

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Republicans have threaten to change long established Senate rules on debate, a move that Republicans initially called their “Nuclear Option.” If Republican’s implement the nuclear option it would end the Democrats’ ability to defend the independence of the courts, since Republicans would be able to put in the bench any ideologically driven judges for lifetime appointments. Senator Bill Frist is spearheading the Republican’s efforts to ram through their nuclear option. In response, an idealistic band of students at Senator Frist’s alma matter, Princeton, have mounted a continuous filibuster in front of a building that the Senator’s family donated to the university.

You can see the student’s ongoing filibuster here:
http://www.princeton.edu/~petehill/filibuster.html

The students, and guests, including a couple of physics professors, have been at it for 60 hours, 29 minutes and going… they deserve a big applause.

I found out about the students thanks to Talking Points Memo.

So it Begins: Republicans Aim after Democrats

Well, it looks like the political landscape is about to be littered with bodies — in spite of what the news headlines read like. Just yesterday House Republicans reversed themselves by repealing changes they had made to the House Ethics Committee, which Republicans adopted to protect their Majority Leader — Tom DeLay (NY Times – April 28, 2005 ):

House Overturns New Ethics Rule as Republican Leadership Yields
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, April 27 – In a rare retreat, the Republican-led House on Wednesday overturned contentious rule changes made to the House ethics process, with Republicans saying they surrendered to the Democrats to try to restore a way to enforce proper conduct in the House.

[...]

One of the most immediate effects of the House’s reverting to the old rules will be the opening of an investigation into persistent questions about Mr. DeLay’s overseas travel and his relationships with prominent lobbyists. His fund-raising operations are under investigation by a grand jury in Texas, and some of the lobbyists’ roles have come under increasing scrutiny by federal investigators in recent months. While Mr. DeLay has not been named as a target of those investigations, the attention paid to his troubles has proven disruptive in the House.

[...]

The vote marked another pivot in a politically charged ethics tug-of-war expected to persist in the House. Lawmakers of both parties said they expected the resolution of the standoff to lead to calls for ethics inquiries into not only Mr. DeLay but also other members, including Democratic leaders.

As the NY Times article explains, the immediate effect will be to start the investigation into Tom DeLay’s alleged corruption violations, which “Tom DeLay’s House of Scandals” does a good job of cataloguing. The key point, however, is listed in the third paragraph above. So, while on its face Republicans’ reversal on the Ethics Committee changes may seem like a retreat, it in fact is the opening of a new front: Republicans are about to go after Democrats in the House.

The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress exclusively, has a lot more background information on the tit-for-tat ploy that Republicans are about to engage in:

Republican lawmakers who met yesterday to discuss a proposal by Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to reverse changes to House ethics rules said it is inevitable that their colleagues will file complaints against Democrats once the ethics panel is again operational.

Republicans said that not one of their colleagues has volunteered to file a complaint against a Democrat but that they have no doubt that will in fact happen.

Some GOP legislators are upset that they were forced to back down on the ethics rules, handing House Democrats a huge political victory. Others, including Hastert, believed that keeping the rules in place would have inflicted significant, long-term damage on House Republicans.

Clearly, Republicans are not interested in getting to the bottom of the corruption allegations under which Tom DeLay continues to exercise his leadership over House Republicans; instead, Republicans merely aim to muddy the waters by going after Democrats by fishing for any charge that’ll stick against any one of them.

As always, LiberalOasis provides some of the best commentary and analysis on the Republicans’ strategic retreat:

As you can see, scrapping the new ethics rules intended to block an investigation into Tom DeLay is not a retreat.

Just a change in strategy.

They’re tired of playing defense for DeLay.

So now they’re gearing up to play some offense.

[...]

While they can’t fully bump DeLay off the front pages, they can potentially muddy the waters, turning the narrative into an “everybody does it” kind of story.

Now, this is very much a high-risk strategy for the GOP.

A steady stream of “everybody does it” stories can create an anti-incumbent “Throw The Bums Out” dynamic, as the House Bank scandal did in 1992 (43 congresspeople were defeated, another 52 retired.)

While the GOP margin in the House has been fairly slim for several years, Dems have never been given much change to regain control, because incumbency re-elections rates have been so high.

A Throw The Bums Out dynamic, while possibly stinging some Dems, may well be the party’s best chance in 2006.

Read the entire post at LiberalOasis, there’s a lot of great insight and advice in the entry.

Democratic Agenda for America

This is brilliant, while Republicans are running around destroying the principle of “Separation of Church and State” and, too, threating to permanently alter long standing Senate rules on debate, which Republicans have called their “nuclear option,” Democrats have put forward a much needed agenda for reform — originally posted at Daily Kos:

As a matter of comity, the Minority in the Senate traditionally defers to the Majority in the setting of the agenda. If Bill Frist pulls the nuclear trigger, Democrats will show deference no longer.

Invoking a little-known Senate procedure called Rule XIV, last week Democrats put nine bills on the Senate calendar that seek to help America fulfill its promise.

If Republican’s break the rules Democrats will use the rule to bring to the Senate floor an agenda that meets the needs of average Americans, such as lowering gas prices, reducing the cost of health care and helping veterans.

“Across the country, people are worried about things that matter to their families – the health of their loved ones, their child’s performance in schools, and those sky high gas prices,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. “But what is the number one priority for Senate Republicans? Doing away with the last check on one-party rule in Washington to allow President Bush, Senator Frist and Tom Delay to stack the courts with radical judges. If Republicans proceed to pull the trigger on the nuclear option, Democrats will respond by employing existing Senate rules to push forward our agenda for America.”

Democrats have introduced bills that address America’s real challenges. (Details attached)

1. Women’s Health Care (S. 844). “The Prevention First Act of 2005″ will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions by increasing funding for family planning and ending health insurance discrimination against women.

2. Veterans’ Benefits (S. 845). “The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2005″ will assist disabled veterans who, under current law, must choose to either receive their retirement pay or disability compensation.

3. Fiscal Responsibility (S. 851). Democrats will move to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and extend the pay-as-you-go requirement.

4. Relief at the Pump (S. 847). Democrats plan to halt the diversion of oil from the markets to the strategic petroleum reserve. By releasing oil from the reserve through a swap program, the plan will bring down prices at the pump.

5. Education (S. 848). Democrats have a bill that will: strengthen head start and child care programs, improve elementary and secondary education, provide a roadmap for first generation and low-income college students, provide college tuition relief for students and their families, address the need for math, science and special education teachers, and make college affordable for all students.

6. Jobs (S. 846). Democrats will work in support of legislation that guarantees overtime pay for workers and sets a fair minimum wage.

7. Energy Markets (S. 870). Democrats work to prevent Enron-style market manipulation of electricity.

8. Corporate Taxation (S. 872). Democrats make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes to the U.S. government instead of keeping profits overseas.

9. Standing with our troops (S. 11). Democrats believe that putting America’s security first means standing up for our troops and their families

“Abusing power is not what the American people sent us to Washington to do. We need to address real priorities instead — fight for relief at the gas pump, stronger schools and lower health care costs for America’s families,” said Senator Reid.