Posted by
Nehemiah on Thursday, November 27, 2008 2:10:48 AM
November 25, 2008
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) in a recent Townhall.com article sounded the alarm
over the possibility of legislation passing which would authorize card checks for union elections.
She then appeals to conservative anxiety over card check legislation to stress how critical it is for
Republicans to win the two remaining undecided U.S. Senate races up for grabs in Georgia,
where Saxby Chambliss is in a run-off with Democrat, Jim Martin, and of course in Minnesota
where Republican Senator Norm Coleman is only 200 votes ahead of challenger comedian Al Franken.
Bachman points out with an added sense of urgency, that current Senate rules require a 60 vote
majority before debate can be cut off to end a filibuster.
That's true enough.
However, what Ms Bachmann fails to address is the very real and likely possibility of the Democrats
borrowing a page from the old GOP playbook, where former Senate Majority leader,
William Frist threatened Senate Democrats with what he ominously referred to as the
"nuclear option" if they dared to filibuster President Bush's Supreme Court Nominee, Samuel Alito.
The nuclear option was simply a parliamentary maneuver by Frist to eliminate the
filibuster from the Senate rules, thereby making a simply majority vote all that is necessary
to cut off debate and force a vote on any issue. And Harry Reid, like his nemesis, William Frist,
could indeed use the nuclear option, if he becomes frustrated by serial filibusters by Republicans.
And it would be very naive to think Reid has forgotten and forgiven, and isn't still smarting from
Frist's hardball use of the nuclear option to intimidate him and the democrats who opposed the
nomination of Alito.
See also:
And
The political reality is that a filibuster can be killed by a simple majority vote as former
Senate Majority leader, Bill Frist proved that, when the democrats were getting ready to filibuster
Justice Sam Alito-all the majority party has to do is change the senate rules disallowing filibusters
on any designated legislation they choose. So the undecided Senate races in Minnesota and
Georgia probably won't change things that much, one way or the other.
(Remember they can always use RINOS to get 60 votes in any event.)
Given this harsh reality, what should republicans do to slow the impending flood of
cockamamie legislation from the democratically controlled US Senate?
Well, the answer is to use the filibuster judiciously. Very judiciously indeed.
To do otherwise is to risk democrats invoking the nuclear option which would
be a major disaster for conservatism-the likes of which we have not seen in years. Just think
what woud coud happen if the filibuster is eliminated. Every radical bill introduced by Barney Frank,
or Ted Kennedy would become law by simply majority vote of fifty one Senators, and signed
by President Obama.
Therefore, we need to protect the right to filibuster by using it sparingly and only for the most principled
stands-such as moral issues which the American people would understand and respect -even if they
disagree. Examples would be issues related to abortion, birth control for teens, Gay rights, religious liberty
and expression matters,as the teaching of evolution in public schools with the simultaneous prohibition
of intelligent design being also presented. And of course, we could have new battles over sacrilegious
or immoral public art displayed with tax payer money, and stem cell research.
To use the filibuster for secular political issues such as union card check offs, as Rep Bachman
seems to recommend, would risk not just Republicans being viewed by the American people as
“obstructionists“, but also it would expend valuable political capital which we must save to stop the
possibility of a floodgate of truly vile and wicked
legislation such as some of the aforementioned.
It would be folly indeed to filibuster card check offs, and infuriate the Democrats to the point
where they might invoke the nuclear option and then come back, and resurrect card check-offs, and then
proceed to pass a tsunami of destructivelegislation which would set us back decades.
We conservatives, as Holy Scripture admonishes us, need to “be wise as serpents and harmless as
doves” in this inhospitable and highly polarized political climate. We dare not tust the Democrats
not to run roughshod over us as Senator Frist not so long ago, threatened to "do unto them."
We must contend most earnestly on MORAL issues first, or remain in the
minority. God will not bless and prosper if we forsake his issues to press our own secular political
priorities. Jesus said, "seek ye first the kingdon of God and his righteous, and then all these other
things shall be added unto you."