Does the Senate Parliamentarian Read This Weblog?

Random ruminations on Senatorial rules.

As I mentioned yesterday, Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy have ruled their respective roosts dictatorially. If Leahy really, really didn't want a vote on a prospective judge, there wasn't a vote. That simple. If Daschle really, really didn't want a vote on just about anything he didn't like, there wasn't a vote. That simple.

And The Mighty Barrister today took notice of Democratic threats of temper tantrums filibusters on... well... on any subject they really, really don't like.

I ask you this: is that any way to run an organization of grown ups?

Why do the rules give to one man (whoever he might be) so much power? Why can one man prevent a vote in a committee when he knows the committee is going to vote the way he doesn't want? Why can one man prevent a vote in the Senate when he knows the Senate will vote contrary to his desires? And why can one man effectively bring things to a stand-still if he doesn't even want discussion of a certain subject?

I ask you again: is that any way to run an organization of grown ups?

Why are these rules what they are? Why doesn't anybody change them? I know: everybody likes to have rules like that so they can take advantage of them if possible. But, surely, there were enough individual Senators on both sides of the aisle dismayed by the dictatorial rule of Daschle and Leahy to be able to force a change in the rules, no?

How can anybody stand to be the member of a supposedly democratic, deliberative body that leaves you at the mercy — or, rather, the lack of mercy — of one individual?

My advice to the Senate?

They're not in the Constitution; they're not even laws. They are just rules that the Senate has made and the Senate can unmake.

Maybe you think no Republican would ever use them so tyrannically to his advantage. Do not be so naive. And maybe you think it will be a long, long time before Daschle and Leahy get back in their respective positions with a Democratic majority. Do not be so stupid. And maybe you think that nobody down the road, on either side of the aisle, will have learned from the example of Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy — seeing that they did whatever they wanted to do, and nobody stopped them. Do not be so foolish.

What am I missing? Somebody tell me.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 11/07/02 08:01:09 PM
Categorized as Political.