Filibuster, Smilibuster! And Forget the Blue Dogs! You Take a 51 Vote Victory & Move On.

[David Zephyr]

This Mr. Nice Guy has gotten President Obama down to near 50% approval ratings. He's looking weak.

Karl Rove rammed his puppet's legislation through Congress with no regard to whether it was bi-partisan or not. Bush and Cheney took the victories and moved on to the next agenda item.

What are 60 Democratic votes in the Senate worth if you can't get nine of them to break with the Republicans and vote with you.

Filibuster, smilibuster! I don't give a flip about our so-called 60 vote margin. We can barely limp to the finish line with 51 now.

Give me 51 strong Democrats in the Senate, team players (or 50 with Biden) and strict discipline with the other 9 any day over this losing formula of kissing treacherous butts.

This nice guy shit is only signaling weakness to the GOP. They poke for every weakness they can find to make him "fail" to "break him" to deliver Obama's "Waterloo."

Washington devoured Jimmy Carter because he was too nice. Carter's own people in the NSC were working already with Reagan's campaign undermining him.

We are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Obama can now no afford to lose the health-care battle. Jim DeMint spoke volumes when he said it would break him if they stop him here.

Obama must act like an executive now. His bark must now have bite.

Bite back! Chew them like a junk yard dog. Bite back!

[elocs]

1. The reality is that there are only 58 Democratic Senators, 2 independents who caucus with the Dems.

One of those independents: Joe Lieberman. That means if all the others vote in lockstep with one another that is only 59. Unlike Republicans, Democrats are not good at uniting and standing together but will fragment as various blocks will not compromise on what they believe is important, but to the detriment of the interests of the party as a whole. If the Democrats do not stand together on their common interests, they will fail.

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. Well, if you want to put it that way, there's really only 56 Dems right now.

Since Byrd & Teddy don't show up much lately. Teddy would probably make an exception for the health care vote (if the bill was worth him getting out of his pajamas to vote for -i.e. a real public option, and not that Romneycare shit that Dodd is trying to pass off in his name)

Not sure how Byrd is on the whole thing, or frankly if he even knows what's going on.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. You need to review the Senate rules...as I recall it goes something like this...

All bills get debated. Any senator can refuse to allow debate to stop. The only way to over ride is a cloture motion, which requires 60 votes. 51 votes is not enough to control the Senate

[comtec]

12. IS the gop filibustering, ro threatening to?

if not we only need a simple majority

otherwise how did the gop get so much passed under shrub?

[DCKit]

14. "...how did the gop get so much passed under shrub?"

Republicans marching in lock-step, intimidation and a few (D) - Corporate.

And Dog knows what the maladministration dug up with all their illegal spying.

[comtec]

15. I don't ever recall 60 votes for a gop measure tho.

not even with all the blue balls.

[elocs]

13. No, I don't need to review the Senate rules.

To override cloture does require 60 votes and there are only 58 Democratic senators. Two independent senators caucus with the Democrats and one of them is Joe Lieberman. However, 51 Democratic Senators does give them majority control of the Senate.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Being a nice guy is not the same as being a wimp.

You can escort a person to prison while loving him, having no hate in your heart, but knowing it has to be done.

Being nice is not about caving in, it is about not hating your opponent while you fight for what you believe without anger.

You can fight real hard without hate, anger, and especially without violence.

Some of the people in congress were picked to run because they are followers not leaders, but many have the ability to lead, and many stand up alot more then we see on TV.

Our leaders need to step up if they are held back by fear. It is possible many might have just wanted to be leaders in government, or even private sector, just for the perks, not knowing being leaders is a tough job, that has consequences and duties. But there are many examples of good leadership also.


In wars people on the battlefield put their life on the line. People like Gandhi, Mandela, and many others spent years in jail for a principle. Even today some leaders are smeared or in jail for fighting for what is good. But most that fight for what is good make it through.

[Birthmark]

4. I'm with you, David.

Jam it down their throats and tell 'em tough shit.

[LaPera]

5. This is what it will come down to...but will the Dems in the senate have the balls?

[lamp_shade]

6. Cram it through. It makes no sense at all to waste time with the R's. BUT...... make damn sure

it's OUR bill. No kiss-ass compromise amendments with the R's. Limited (just enough) compromise with Blue Dogs. It would be a shame to load the bill with harmful, meaningless, kiss-ass amendments and then shove it through anyway using reconciliation. I hope this is the plan because it's VERY CLEAR to ALL that this bill will NOT get 60 votes.

[comtec]

7. We only NEED 50

the VP will break the tie.

How many Blue dogs in the Senate?

We only NEED 50 votes guarantee'd the rest is gravy!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Nope, you need 60

[tkmorris]

11. You need 60 to get it to a vote

Trouble is that when they had less than 60 there were always a few Dems who would vote for cloture too, and then try to save face by voting "no" to the bill itself. Now that we have fewer than 60 we need a few Repubs to vote for cloture in order to allow for the final up or down vote and there are NO Repubs voting for cloture on anything. It may look like we have 58 Dems in the Senate but in reality we have about 51. On any controversial legislation you can count on about a half dozen or so Dems to side with the bad guys. They will only vote with us on obvious no-brainer stuff.

[Vidar]

10. K&R