Harry Reid Knows What He Is Doing In The Senate Tonight, The Rethugs Can’t Block Him!

[kpete]

Congress Expert: Wingers Wrong, Reid's Force-A-Filibuster Plan Not In Trouble
By Greg Sargent

Okay, I've just checked in with Sarah Binder, an expert in governance studies at Brookings Institution. And she tells me that contrary to what we're reading on the winger blogs today, Harry Reid's plan to force an Iraq filibuster is not procedurally Dead On Arrival at all.

Expert Binder tells me that this argument is a complete wash on many levels.

Here's why: Senate rules have a provision for dealing with things like this. As Joan notes, even if the Republicans were not to show up, Dems would be able to perhaps force them to, Binder notes. Under Senate rules, Reid would be able to ask the Sergeant-at-arms to go get the missing GOP Senators and bring them back to the Senate. She points to this particular Senate reg:

Whenever upon such roll call it shall be ascertained that a quorum is not present, a majority of the Senators present may direct the Sergeant at Arms to request, and, when necessary, to compel the attendance of the absent Senators...

And yes, this has apparently happened before, in 1988, when Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., ordered round-the-clock Senate sessions that were boycotted by Republicans. Charlie Cook recounts that Byrd ordered the Senate's sergeant-at-arms to arrest absent senators and bring them to the floor. Capitol cops arrested Sen. Robert Packwood, R-Ore., and even removed him from a locked Senate office and carried him onto the Senate floor, Cook writes.

Reid hasn't said whether he'll do this. But if he did, imagine the storyline...the Sergeant-at-Arms going out to chase down awol Republican Senators refusing to show up for a debate on the Iraq War. Seems like a narrative that Reid, who likes a bit of drama, might not mind all that much.



http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jul/17/congress_expert

[spanone]

1. K&R

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[EFerrari]

2. LOL! That would be fun.

Go, Harry!

[liberalnurse]

3. Oh Yea!

I want to see this! Especially Mitch McConnell.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. It's Republican talking points on Iraq and nonaccountability that's dead on arrival.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Give em hell HARRY!!!!

:party: :toast:

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Man, I better make me a BIG POT OF COFFEE tonight! I REALLY don't want to miss a minute of this!

I really, really, really need to go to bed early tonight, but I don't want to!!!:cry:

There's nothing I would like better than to see Jeff Sessions' ass drug onto the Senate floor by the Sergeant-at-Arms!:bounce:

[blogslut]

7. And Reid chose the beginning of the work-week

That way they can't be flying home to their collective states to hide out.

I love this filibuster-buster!

[kansasblue]

8. This happened more recently in Texas when the Dems were rounded up.

They were hiding out of state but someone tracked them down and they were taken back to the state house in Texas.

[Pastiche423]

10. No, they were not "taken back" to the state house in Texas

The Democratic state legislators returned to the state Friday, claiming victory in their effort to block the redistricting bill after the midnight deadline for its passage expired. The legislation would have redrawn the boundaries of Texas congressional districts, shifting as many as seven seats in the US House of Representatives from Democratic to Republican control.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/tex-m17.shtml

[Grandrose]

9. K&R

Go for it Harry!:popcorn: :kick:

[blondeatlast]

11. Frog march 'em back to the chambers and make 'em eat their donuts in cuffs!

GIVE 'EM HELL, HARRY!

[MARCUSCO]

14. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE THE SGT. AT ARMS IN ACTION TONIGHT..

That would give him the confidence to go and drag in Harriet Miers before the house judiciary committee UNDER ARREST!!

:spank:

:rofl:

[many a good man]

12. No problem. Sergeant Livingood has been working at the gym.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. with Vitter?

that would be a sight.

[133724]

13. A perp Walk???? Hand cuffs??? In Bathrobes??? Sounds Great...

On Edit: On second thought skip the bathrobes... I can't even imagine what Hastert would look like; and; I don't think I want to...

[bonito]

15. Good I hope he does. n/t

[mzmolly]

16. Well they did take the roll call, let's get a move on!

Reid hasn't said whether he'll do this. But if he did, imagine the storyline...the Sergeant-at-Arms going out to chase down awol Republican Senators refusing to show up for a debate on the Iraq War. Seems like a narrative that Reid, who likes a bit of drama, might not mind all that much.

I love drama, which may be apparent to some? ;)

[MiniMe]

17. It has already been used once

[LSK]

18. this has already happened, roughly 2 hours ago

[NYC Liberal]

20. What did?

[cynatnite]

19. Who would you like to see carried in like Sen. Packwood was?

Lamar Alexander? Trent Lott?

:rofl:

Excellent read!

[L. Coyote]

21. interesting possibilities and articles