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StumbleDemocrats find 60-vote majority in Senate gone in a flash
Reid back to trolling for one vote from GOP
Susan Walsh / AP
Vice President Joe Biden, right, reenacts the swearing in of Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., left, as Brown’s wife, Gail Huff, holds the family Bibles in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill. Earlier on Thursday, Brown was sworn in on the floor of the Senate.
Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday following his swearing in.
Sun Archives
Here is how the Democrats’ 60-vote majority in the Senate came to an end.
No election night confetti. No balloons. Just Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts standing at the back of the Senate chamber ready to take his place as the 41st Republican.
At 5:10 p.m. EST Thursday, the former male model walked down the main aisle of the Senate, stopped before Vice President Joe Biden, raised his right hand and pledged to uphold the Constitution. By 5:12 p.m., it was done.
Polite applause from the Democratic side of the room, hearty clapping from Sen. John Ensign and his colleagues on the Republican side. The galleries packed with onlookers withholding their reactions, according to the rules.
Just like that, the 60-seat Democratic majority, which the chamber had not seen since 1977, was gone.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shook the new senator’s hand.
Sixty has become the number of senators needed to do business. It was not always the norm, but in this era of hyperpartisanship, when neither side wants to play nicely, it is the only way to overcome the opposition’s filibusters and pass legislation.
Brown took a spin around the press briefing room, telling reporters he had wanted to come to Washington earlier than planned (he was supposed to be sworn in next week) because “I want to get to work.”
He said voters are “fed up” with Washington, echoing the Tea Party populism that played so well on the campaign trail, but has a different ring on the third floor of the stately Senate wing of the nation’s Capitol. He said spending is out of control and the stimulus bill “didn’t create one new job” — an assertion even economists from his side of the aisle won’t make.
In coming days, Republicans want to stop one of the president’s labor nominees from being confirmed, but Brown insisted he had not been asked to vote a certain way. “There’s no hidden agenda,” Brown said.
Even during the heady days of the 2008 campaign, the prospect of hitting 60 votes was always a long shot for Democrats. But on election night, Reid watched from a Washington hotel room as his 51-seat majority swelled. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, then the party’s campaign chairman, kept bounding in the room with the latest victory.
Sixty was so close.
Last spring, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties, becoming No. 59. By summer, Minnesota finished counting ballots and comedian Al Franken became No. 60.
In some ways, 60 proved to be as elusive a majority as 51 had been the year before. Democrats had had one of the most productive legislative sessions before Franken arrived. And 60 didn’t guarantee victory as Democrats struggled to secure votes for their health care bill.
Yet when the Senate passed health care reform on Christmas Eve without a single Republican vote, the power of 60 was on display.
Within weeks Brown became a household name. The Republican had been driving his pickup truck around Massachusetts, rounding up votes for an upset victory to claim the seat held for nearly 50 years by Ted Kennedy, who died in August.
Asked Thursday if he could stomach being the crossover guy — the one vote Democrats need to pass a bill — Brown sidestepped the question and said he will vote for his state.
Reid now will go back to the days of dialing for votes, trying to find the one Republican willing to work with Democrats.
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Your headline is incorrect. The Democrats still have an 18 seat majority in the Senate in spite of your wishful thinking.
Thank you, lipreader. Headline has been updated to reflect the 60-vote majority referenced in the story.
A majority is defined as "Half, plus one," or more than half. That's in American English, of course.
Never forget, gloating Republicans, that we Democrats still have a 59-41 majority--enough to do all business needed once the archaic filibuster is eliminated or reduced in importance. Democrats lost a "supermajority"--not a majority. No other democracy permits an obstructionist minority to thwart the will of a clear majority through filibustering. I hope the travesty of the filibuster soon becomes a historical relic in the United States. There is no place for such blatant obstructionism in this nation.
The first use of the filibuster in the US Senate was in 1837.
In the last century, it was changed from requiring 67 Senators to end a filibuster to 60.
Since the 1940's the most famous of the filibusters have been lead by Democrats.
The filibuster is constitutional for the US Constitution allows both chambers to set their own rules and procedures. The House use to have filibusters, too.
One can change the filibuster rule if 60 Senators vote for the change.
If removed then most likely a future Republican President will one day finally get to appoint a person to the Sumpreme Court that will change the balance of power to a conservative court and hopefully overturn Roe V Wade.
God bless Massachusetts for saving the union.
Actually, there are 41 Republicans in the Senate and 57 Democrats with 2 Independents. I believe the scribe was referring to a 'supermajority' or a 'qualified majority', in other words 3/5, or 60 members of the Senate. However, the use of the word majority throughout the article makes it seem that Scott Brown won not just a single seat but 11 seats and put the Republicans at 51 seats in the Senate!
60 votes, or a Supermajority, would allow one side to maneuver around the threat of a filibuster. The fact remains that filibusters rarely succeed and generally lead to a compromise and not a victory for the group or party in the minority.
Further adding to all of this is that Scott Brown is a very liberal Republican, or a RINO, as some would label him. He voted for health care reform in Massachusetts and is for same sex marriage as well as abortion rights. He spoke against the size of TARP and stimulus but was not against them. This is exactly what conservatives, the right and the astro-turf movement are railing against. But they are holding them up as a new messiah of sorts.
It's odd that with all the talk of Tea Parties and Founding Fathers and flag waving and 'take the country back' nobody is remembering Ben Franklin. Franklin was a proponent of compromise. But compromise means actually being able to communicate with some level of articulation.
watching this guy at press conference, he's in till 2012 and done. put him up for election today and he's toast. sounds like just another no vote. independent my ass
Any Good Bill will easily pass with a 59 majority because Republican will support GOOD bills
Democrats are idiots and Republicans are retarded. Dems can't get anything done while NEOCONS preach hate and racism. Screw them, I'm going home!!
60 votes was far to vulgar display of power.
haha, i love when people use the word "neocon". it's like when a dumb person gets hold of a word they think sounds neat, but really has no meaning.
give me ONE instance...a FACTUAL instance with a link to a credible news source where a republican has preached hate and racism.
Just keep calling the voters names. Neocon, red necks, astro turf, angry mobs. The problem is they all vote.
It's disgusting the way Mascaro tries to spin Reid to look good even when he's an abject failure - especially with "reform".
Brown was elected because of the strong Nonpartisan turnout expressing their displeasure and disgust with what Reid had done in the last year with his backroom deals and bribes with taxpayer money. Even Nelson is trying to give it back now.
The same will happen here in November as Nonpartisans go straight anti-incumbent especially on Reid.
Mascaro can then spend the rest of her deserved days in unemployment after masquerading as a journalist telling about the halcyon days of Reid and his phantom "60". The Sun will set slowly in the partisan muck it puts out.
This just shows what a piece of garbage the current health care bill really was(is). Since the election there hasn't been one peep about health care reform urgency.
Harry is the most incompetent majority leader EVER.
Since I am not a Democrat (thank god) I hope Harry gets re-elected..... this guy could stall the sales of a lemonade stand on a hot day.
btw, I am ecstatic this crazy free spending President bagged on Vegas.... it reveals how truly disdainful he is about his constituents.
Kennedy-GONE
Dobb-GONE
Reid-soon to be GONE!
After November the Democrats will be happy that they can filibuster our majority. It goes both ways.
"Very true" (goingbust) "Very true"
How quaint he's pictured here being sworn in with his hand on bibles. He's already disregarding his oath.
This nation's founders for the most part despised religion and that book especially. Jefferson's term for it was "dunghill."
The Constitution.....do they even abide by that anymore?
Vegasj,
Even if they do preach hate they aren't preaching or advocating violence against others like you are. Have you heard of freedom of speech?
"The Constitution.....do they even abide by that anymore?"
United -- funny thing, how they have to take that oath or they can't take office. You could say that oath is their promise to us before we let them.
The Constitution is the source code of all government authority. Without it they're no more than organized thugs and bandits.
That they don't "abide by that anymore" is the fault to be laid directly at our feet. We let them get away with it -- partly because when a citizen exercises the liberties that very document promises he is punished for it. I know this firsthand. The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United -- you know, the one hotly debated here last week where people screamed about corporations taking over America -- proved that.
Hey vegasj...
What is your definition of "hate?"
How about your definition of "violence?"
Did you not learn anything from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel using the word "retard?"
And are really man enough to "Hang'em!!"???
Haters huh....
"We're really entering a third wave of environmentalism in the United States. The white polluters and the white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people of color communities." -Van Jones
"light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one" -Harry Reid
"I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry. No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 -- what I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact." -Barrack Obama
"If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there's no guarantee that they're going to invest that or invest it in America." -John Kerry
"and let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don't care." -Chuck Schumer
I don't have time to throw up more quotes but maybe later.
Harry Reid has got to go next!
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Senator Brown's election is just the beginning . . ..
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There needs to be some balance! Democrats had a super majority last year and just think about what a mess they made of it.
Reid, with his corrupt back door deals, bribes and threats helped destroy the only thing that matter to Obama (his legacy. Obama, for his part, paid little attention to the fact we continued to lose jobs and our homes. Pelosi is still ranting away. With those three in charge and all the other democrats either afraid or incapable of thinking for themselves they refused to listen to the people and government was totally out of control.
I know the dude is gay by his hot pics.
Sgt. Rock wrote, "Since the 1940's the most famous of the filibusters have been lead by Democrats."
I am well aware of the history of the filibuster in the 20th Century. I am a Georgia native and I know that segregationists Southern Democrats stood up in the Senate and read about corn bread and collard greens, if necessary, to thwart the work of the Senate. That dark period in US history is over and the filibuster should now be as quaint a relic as a "Whites Only" water fountain.
Thank God for Scott Brown!! The beginning of a series of refreshing changes to the absolute arrogant environment in Washington today. Democrats in Washington still "don't get it" but, they will!
Join the Tea Party Express. Coming to Las Vegas in March! TeaPartyExpress.org America fights back!