Posted by
Republiservative on Saturday, January 22, 2011 8:20:31 PM
Remember back in 2005, when the GOP ran Congress and the Senate threatened to cut the filibuster as Congress and Bush passed the REAL ID Act? Even Democrats (most not now in public office or political office) back then claimed REAL ID would take away each State's rights in controlling driving/ID and subject every State to defining itself completely as a mere province effectuating a centralized Federal government will for whatever Sola Republica deigned.
Of course the filibuster was kept, and REAL ID was deffered until December 2009...when DHS Secretary Napolitano found 46 out of 56 USA States/territories couldn't cope, so the deadline was extended to May 11, 2011 for all-inclusive compliance of a Federal issuance of personal ID and related personal regulations.
Now here it is January 2011, and guess what? Another call to end State's-Rights derived filibuster rules! Sigh.........
Anyway, another PAC has asked me to convey my support to you of the autonomous fact the filibuster...although not guaranteed or mentioned by the Constitution...ought not be done away with; it is a rule that ensures every State has a right to exert political influence for its own governmental or economic reasons (including buying time for more research), and provides that a majority of the Senators may invoke cloture against a filibustering Senator.
This is the same thing I said in concert with the Democratic National Committee, inter alia, back in the day then-Seante majority leader William H. Frist, M.D. (R-TN) threatened to end the filibuster.
It may be that on the one hand, so few Senators today would even be interested IN filibustering (usually waiting to see if the Senate would invoke cloture before starting) no one in the present Senate would miss it. On the other hand, to dismiss the rule permitting filibusters would stymie all future Senators who may not be as easily discouraged, and one day might have a point beneficial to the most people which no one yet discovered.
For these reasons, I respectfully submit that although the setting of rules of ANY governmental body is hardly the realm of private citizens or PACs, it does not seem fair to minority viewpoints to not permit a vehicle of responsible dissent...especially in an era of so many "unread" omnibus super-bills.