Bush’s Heirs Pull Dirty Tricks in the Senate

The U.S. Senate used to be considered a noble debate chamber; now the order of the day is resentment and self-seeking chaos. The Republican minority is fighting with everything it can lay its hands on against their majority opponents, including the right to filibuster, in order to cripple the government.

If all goes well, the Democratic majority in the Senate will pass the healthcare reform bill on Christmas Eve day. With assistance from independents, President Obama’s most important domestic initiative overcame another hurdle on Tuesday, a vote on procedural matters and amendments.

After Christmas, the Senate could succumb to its own illness or go about curing itself; the upper house, as some senators themselves complain, is poisoned by selfishness, malevolence and obstruction. It is also undemocratic to the core since the Republican minority threatens to filibuster everything, thus forcing Democrats to achieve a super-majority of 60 votes.

It amounts to 40 Republican senators holding the world’s supposedly most noble deliberative body hostage, and they are as proud of their obstructionist politics as though they were a bunch of nasty kids.

Anyone who thinks that description is exaggerated, or perhaps even (perish the thought) partisan, should read the new study published by political scientist Barbara Sinclair on the use of the filibuster during the last 50 years. This parliamentary procedure, not even mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, was invoked in only eight percent of major Senate votes during the 1960s. In the 1980s, the rate climbed to 27 percent, edging perilously close to abuse.

But when the Republicans lost their Senate majority in 2006, the rate skyrocketed to 70 percent. It was invoked 139 times in 2008 alone. “We have crossed the mark of over 100 filibusters and acts of procedural obstruction in less than one year,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said bitterly. “Never since the founding of the Republic, not even in the bitter sentiments preceding the American Civil War, was such a thing ever seen in this body.”

Now other government bodies are employing similar delaying tactics. Fans of parliamentary games are reminded of Cato the Younger (95 B.C.- 46 B.C.), whose interminable speeches drove his political opponents onto the defensive – even including Julius Caesar.