Filibuster brawl amps up with GOP opposition to Jan. 6 panel

[Judi Lynn]

The battle over the chamber’s 60-vote threshold will erupt as soon as next week.

y BURGESS EVERETT

05/21/2021 04:30 AM EDT

The filibuster has been on hiatus since Joe Biden took over. Senate Republicans are about to change that — over a bipartisan commission to probe the Capitol riot.

After more than four months of letting their power to obstruct lie unused in the Senate, the 50-member Senate GOP is ready to mount a filibuster of House-passed legislation creating an independent cross-aisle panel to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. If Republicans follow through and block the bill, they will spark a long-building fight over the filibuster’s very existence.

The filibuster has spent months of lurking in the background of the Senate’s daily business, but the battle over the chamber’s 60-vote threshold will erupt as soon as next week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is plotting to bring the House's Jan. 6 commission bill to the floor and daring Senate Republicans to block it.

And GOP opposition is hardening by the day. According to interviews with more than a half-dozen Republicans on Thursday, there is almost no path to even opening up debate on the bill — much less passing it.

More:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/filibuster-gop-opposition-commission-489954

[world wide wally]

1. Paying attention, Manchin?

[OneCrazyDiamond]

6. And Sen. Kyrsten Sinema too. N/T

[Hestia]

2. It's 2009 all over again

[FBaggins]

3. Not sure how this is a "filibuster brawl"

Democrats control both the House and Senate. They don't need to overcome a filibuster or get a single republican vote in order to investigate and/or hold hearings on the events of January 6th.

What Democrats want is an investigation that bears the imprimatur of a "bipartisan commission" created by law.

The problem here is that support from a handful of one party doesn't get us that. There needs to be actual bipartisan support. Getting past a filibuster doesn't get us what we want.

[Salviati]

9. I'm sure they know that quite well...

What this is, is an object lesson to Manchin, and any other Democrats that believe that there is any honor left in the republican party, that the republican party they imagine sitting across the aisle from them is long since dead.

If the Democrats can't get 10 republicans to sign on to sign on to investigating the attack on the Capitol, then the question becomes why is Manchin derailing legislation that enjoys broad popular support amongst people of all political stripes in order to protect the honor, tradition, and duty of the Senate, by forcing compromise with a party that believes in exactly none of that. I wouldn't be surprised if their actions in regards to this investigation may due more to change his mind than any other argument.

[Loki Liesmith]

11. Manchin isn't getting any lesson here

He knows the deal. He’s just not going to vote to abolish the filibuster. Not for anything that isn’t of existential importance for him.

[DownriverDem]

4. We must

do what we can to move forward before it's too late. We must GOTV for the Midterms of 2022. We can't let 2010 happen again.

[Justice matters.]

5. Let voters know every R Senator who side with the cRiminal dRumpf party.

Yays of Nays publicly. Let them be known.

Then once they block it, have the House create a Select Committee for 1/6 and invite Cheney and a few other anti-dRumpfeRs to go after the Big-Lie co-conspiratoR$ under Oath using legally issued Subpoenas and enforcing them.

[Martin68]

7. Time to ditch the filibuster. Deal with the fallout later. Pass essential legislation now.

The system is broke, thanks to the GOP.

[Progressive Jones]

10. I'm down with this. If the shoe were on the other foot, the GOP would do the same.

It wouldn't be a case of "us being no better than them". It's how the system is. It's literally playing by the rules.

Dems need to use what the GOP has wrought to fix the system. Besides, the fallout really won't be that bad.

Voters notice results more than they notice the process.

[TFRD]

8. Good! Get them on record!