Middle of the Night: The Democrats do it Again!
In politics as in war rules are thrown out of the window. However, for many years an air of civility has permeated the Senate floor. This air of civility is deteriorating and the Sen Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, is adding to this ethical race to the bottom. I awoke this morning to find out that yet again, the majority leader has acted in the middle of the night, to stifle the free speech rights of the other 99 U.S. Senators.
Last night the Majority Leader called for a vote to compel all of the Senators to the floor at 9:30pm. One of the last times that this occurred Sen. Packwood was actually carried onto the Senate floor. The Majority Leaders attempt to sway votes and attitudes with this un-diplomatic arcane political procedure is beyond belief and failed 27-28.
Senator Reid was not done though, he wanted to wait until later in the evening to hatch his most egregious plan to usurp the rights of the other 99 Senators. At about 11:15, Senator Reid “filled the tree”. While “filling the tree” sounds like an innocuous action that should only be worried about by groups such as Greenpeace, in reality it is a heavy handed leadership style intended to mute the voice of the dissenters, the fewer, the weaker, and the minority. “Filling the Tree” is a dictatorial legislative maneuver that assures that the only amendments that will be heard while debating S.3036 the Climate Change Bill will be those that have been hand picked by Sen. Reid and effectively stop the rights afforded the minority party by “Riddick’s Senate Procedure.“
Therefore, on what would un-arguably be one of the largest expansions of government in our nation’s history, Senator Reid has limited debate on the bill to one day. Additionally, on that one day of debate no dissenting solutions will be available. The United States Senate is supposed to be the Congressional Chamber where the minority has a voice. For that the matter, Sen. Reid is a member of the Democratic party which supposedly cares about the minority, but as usual, and as I have pointed out in the past, the hypocrisy of the democratic does not take long to expose its ugly head.
Lou Sauer:
Good article! Some of that was discussed on Fox, but this type of
“business” going on in the Senate and House cease to be helpful
and geared to making our country a better place to live - in my opinion it is simply a political manuever to see which party can “gotcha” better and
and oftener than the other, so we, the public, need to hear more of what
of the daily happenings around Washington. Thanks
Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 9:16 pm