When Republicans Loved a Filibuster

[Ian David]

From: Consortiumnews.com <[e-mail]>

When Republicans Loved a Filibuster

Supporters of George W. Bush are furious that some Democrats might filibuster Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. But 15 years ago, the Republicans mounted a crucial filibuster of their own to block an investigation that might have destroyed the legacy of the Reagan-Bush era -- and ended the political viability of the Bush Family.

For the full story of how Americans were denied a full accounting of their recent history, go to Consortiumnews.com at http://www.consortiumnews.com .

To make a tax-deductible donation to keep Consortiumnews.com going, you can contribute by credit card at the Web site or by sending a check to Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Suite 102-231, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201.

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[John Q. Citizen]

1. That's some great reporting and a good read. Recommended

[liberal N proud]

2. How soon they forget and the people too.

American public has such a short term memory that allows these clowns to get away with the rhetoric of turning the Democrats into monsters for the very same acts they pulled when they were a minority

[Greylyn58]

3. Fascinating Read

Kicked and Recommended!!

[Virginian]

4. Great piece. Perhaps after we take back the senate...

...this can be investigated and exposed.

Meanwhile, Republicans were worried that a full-scale October Surprise investigation might implicate Bush in near-treasonous talks with an enemy state and devastate his 1992 reelection campaign. Confirmation of the allegations also would have eviscerated the legitimacy of the Reagan-Bush era.

So, in November 1991, Republican leaders used the filibuster to block funding for the investigation. The Democrats mustered 51 votes – a majority – but fell short of the 60 votes needed for cloture. A fully funded investigation was prevented.

Historical Marker

The Republican success in blocking a full Senate probe received little attention at the time, but represented an important historical marker. It was an early indication of how neoconservative journalists, then rising inside the national news media, could collaborate with Republicans to shape the information reaching the American people.

The preponderance of evidence now suggests that in 1980, Republicans – most likely including Ronald Reagan’s campaign chief William Casey and then-vice presidential nominee George H.W. Bush – did negotiate with representatives of Iran’s Islamic government behind Carter’s back.

[Sammy Pepys]

5. Just for clarification

Is the whole nuclear option thing supposed to alter the filibuster in general, or only filibuster against judicial nominations and not for legislative or other purposes?

[bunkerbuster1]

8. If you trust the Republican senators

You'll believe their claim that the cheezy-assed, abomination of a rules change they'd be ramming through would ONLY pertain to filibustering judicial appointments.

Thing is, once you've eliminated filibustering for one purpose, based on a simple majority vote, there is NOTHING to stop the Senate from applying this rule to other types of filibusters. Game's over, and the Senate knows it.

Hence the term "nuclear option."

[Ian David]

12. I told Kenedy that if they "go nuclear" we should declare a General Strike

Starting with the unions, we should call a national work stoppage.

[bunkerbuster1]

13. hell yeah. "They send one of your men to the hospital,

you send one of their guys to the morgue! That's the Chicago way!"

Someone needs to run that great Sean Connery bit from The Untouchables for these guys.

[yodermon]

6. I had no idea

about this. whoah.
bookmarking & kicking.

[bunkerbuster1]

9. No idea that Reeps had filibustered, period?

or that Dole had filibustered to prevent an investigation of the October surprise?

I'll admit reading of the latter did surprise me; must have forgotten, or wasn't covered much at the time.

[yodermon]

11. Oh i knew the repubs filibustered in general,

that's old hat hypocracy.
I'm talking about the October Surprise. I mean, that's bigger than BCCI (or part of it, heh)

[realFedUp]

7. kick....nt

[Poiuyt]

10. The Republicans filibustered Abe Fortis too

He was nominated by President Johnson to be Chief Justice in 1968

[slipslidingaway]

14. Relevant to the Alito confirmation as mentioned here. KICK

snip

"Though the Democrats didn’t understand the significance at the time, their collaboration in the October Surprise cover-up opened the door for a Bush Restoration eight years later. One of George W. Bush’s few credentials for being President was his father’s reputation as an honorable politician.

So the Republican filibuster in 1991 served a crucial political function by undermining an investigation that might have eliminated the electoral viability of the Bush Family.

The Alito Nomination

Now, 15 years later, a back story of George W. Bush’s nomination of right-wing jurist Samuel Alito is that the U.S. Supreme Court could end up being the final arbiter of attempts to investigate wrongdoing by the current President Bush.

With Alito joining reliable pro-Republican votes – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy – Bush will have an important card up his sleeve should a legal question about the President’s right to keep secrets from Congress or a prosecutor ever wind its way to the high court."



snip

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1010-20.htm

"But perhaps the most egregious example occurred on Nov. 1, 2001, when President Bush signed Executive Order 13233, under which a former president's private papers can be released only with the approval of both that former president (or his heirs) and the current one.

Before that executive order, the National Archives had controlled the release of documents under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which stipulated that all papers, except those pertaining to national security, had to be made available 12 years after a president left office.

Now, however, Mr. Bush can prevent the public from knowing not only what he did in office, but what Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan did in the name of democracy. (Although Mr. Reagan's term ended more than 12 years before the executive order, the Bush administration had filed paperwork in early 2001 to stop the clock, and thus his papers fall under it.)"

[0007]

15. Bob Dole and his filibuster

Dole’s Filibuster

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole led the fight against the October Surprise investigation, much as he had spearheaded attempts to discredit the work of Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, who was slowly deconstructing the Republican cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal.

On Nov. 22, 1991, Dole mounted a filibuster against any independent Senate inquiry of the allegations that the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostage deals had been, in effect, the second act of secret Republican negotiations with Iran’s radical mullahs. Dole invoked party discipline to defeat a cloture vote on funding for the probe.

Though denied the money, a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee still sponsored a small-scale investigation, with attorney Reid Weingarten hired as the lead investigator. But Weingarten found the lack of money only one of the limitations on his investigative efforts, he later told me.

As the probe proceeded, Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Jesse Helms summoned Weingarten into a closed-door meeting in which McConnell brow-beat Weingarten with personal insults. For his part, Helms barred Weingarten’s investigators from interviewing witnesses outside Washington.