There are a couple of interesting tidbits in a recent interview of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) conducted by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post.
First, he calls out a few Republican Senators by name for essentially going too far in their attempt to defeat and / or block legislation. (question in bold)
Health-care reform has, in part, focused a lot of attention on the seemingly dysfunctional process that produced the bill. Your colleague Sen. Jeff Merkley has begun talking about it. Paul Krugman and Andy Stern have focused on it. Bloggers have turned their attention to it. But you’ve been making some of these arguments since the 90s. Is the situation worse now than it was then?
It’s becoming impossible. The situation in the Senate is an offshoot of the old Newt Gingrich philosophy. Back in the 1980s when I was in the House with Gingrich and the Republicans won the presidency and the Senate, Gingrich was asked if the Republicans would ever take the House, too. He said yes, but we’ll have to tear it down first. So that’s what they did. Took them 10 years, or even more. But it was a constant attack. And now it looks like they’re trying to do that in the Senate.
In the past, we’ve always had one or two or three senators who would try to block something. The most famous was Jesse Helms. He could tie people up in a conniption. But the thing is, when he went too far, his leader, Bob Dole, wouldn’t put up with it. Neither would Trent Lott. And later on, even Bill Frist. You allow him to do so much, and after awhile, you say, that’s enough.
Now we have more of the Jesse Helms. The Vitters and DeMint and Coburn, and maybe throw in Inhofe and a couple other newcomers, and they now run the minority. You don’t have a minority leader putting them in check, saying we have to work together. Dole would never put up with what’s going on over there. Neither would Trent Lott. We’ve had 101 objections from Republicans to proceeding.
On that point, Senator Harkin tells Ezra that he’ll introduce a bill he’s offered before that would reform the filibuster process.
Tell me a bit about your reform bill. When you first introduced this, Joe Lieberman was your co-sponsor, right?
Well, I introduced that first in 1995, when we were in the minority. I’m going to reintroduce that again in January. And people are going to say I only worry about this because I’m in the majority. But I come with clean hands! I started when I was in the minority!
The idea is to give some time for extended debate but eventually allow a majority to work its will. I do believe there’s some reason to have extended debate. If a group of senators filibusters a bill, you want to take their worries seriously. Make sure you’re not missing something. My proposal will do that. It says that on the first vote, you need 60. Then you have to wait two days, and on the third day, you need 57 votes. And then you need to wait two days, and on the third day, it’s 54 votes. And then you’d wait another two days, and on the third day, it would be 51 votes.
(credit image – associated press)
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