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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Washington — Twenty-four hours before the Senate voted to change its filibuster procedure, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had a choice. By his own calculation, he had enough Democratic votes in place to dramatically change the extra-constitutional and oft-abused procedural filibuster practice by a simple, majority vote. It would have forced lawmakers to hold forth in the style of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" whenever they objected to legislation, and replaced the 60-vote onus on the majority to keep things moving with a 41-vote onus on the minority to hold them up. At the same time, Reid had the trappings of a ...
"Under the new rules, the only surefire way for Reid to get around Republican opposition to a bill is to guarantee GOP senators at least two amendments to any piece of legislation"
This is all that Republicans ever wanted an honest process where amendment were allowed.
Reid had stopped all amendments that was WRONG and he paid for it
The lame media has been a lousy job reporting on the filibuster issue.
Sometime ago, Reid adopted this play of filling up the admenment tree so that Republicans can't file any admenments. The primary reason why he did that was to protect Democrat Senators that were in Red states so they would could hide their liberal leanings.
So the only recourse was for Republicans to filibuster everything.
The Senate wastes too much time with political posturing and procedural partisanship. It would be better if they took some positive legislative action to deal with our economic dilemma.
"Unprecedented," indeed! Republicrats, though mostly yellow-bellied, spineless Milquetoasts when it comes to standing their ground against the Huns known as Dumbocrats, were merely "giving" as good as they "got" during the George W presidency. Reid the Red and his horde of legalized bandits used the filibuster in "unprecedented" ways so why shouldn't the "Loyal Opposition?" BTW, had Reid the Red succeeded in his Quixotic quest and drastically changed filibuster rules, like most other ignorant moves the Huns have made in the past, history shows that the ploy would have come back to bite him and his ruthless raiders in the behind.
The only "dynamic" seen here, is that our government is so dysfunctional, so full of political posturing and bickering, that little, if anything, is meaningfully done on behalf of the People of the United States of America, that they supposedly represent.
What's the definition of stupidity---doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Senator Reid has simply stayed the course here. UGH
Our country's Lawmakers need to do better, their report cards suck at this point.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Harry failed the country...once again
Gotta love this - our country is going to hell economically and the two so called 'Leaders' of the Senate are making up rules on how they are going to have a 'fair fight'. GEEZ!Now, now, boys and girls, play nice and share your toys. Baffoons on both sides of the aisle! If you want to do something meaningful that will actually benefit the country, amend the Constitution with term limits for people in Congress. Let's get some folks in Congress that will actually do their jobs instead of personally profiting from lobbyists and defer tough decisions over and over again. Ya' bunch of SELF SERVING CLOWNS!
Sen. Reid has proven he's been in the Senate too long...that he now confuses himself with the legacy of the institution. He's there to do a job, not to insure a special place in history for his ego. The Senate is supposed to "cool" the passion of the House and offer more mature and more complex consideration of legislation sent up from the House. But in his attempt to crack the deep freeze created by GOP obstructionism he's allowed the temperature to rise from -110 to -100 degrees. Reid's not the only Senator or Congressman who has been around too long. I've long been a fan of Harry Reid. Voted for him early and often. But this display of bonehead self-serving behavior is too much. To prolong the stalemate between 1950's angry white men and the desperate needs of our country now makes Mr. Reid the problem, not the GOP.
The Democrats goal here is to get enough votes to pass Obama's United Nations Treaties, And they are not good, UN bill of rights for the Child, The UN Gun Ban Treaty, The list goes on.