There's no rule that you need 2/3 of the Senate to be present to pass legislation, like in TX. But it would be hilarious if the entire Republican party were absent as Democrats voted to save the country's infrastructure and create like a million jobs. https://t.co/cOnATKCO5z
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 18, 2021
Lindsey Graham, avatar of Respectable Republicanism, turning into Norma Desmond is… not a great sign for the GOP Death Cult. He was always a GOP partisan, but he’s survived as a politician in South Carolina by knowing how the legislative rules work and votes are counted.
Could be this is just him acting out for the Fox audience, but as Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
RaflW
Can’t recall who pointed it out, but this would backfire hilariously. Because if every Republican is out of the Senate while in session, then Dems can move bills to the floor with unanimous consent.
Llelldorin
A Senate quorum is 51 senators, but doesn’t someone have to actually make raise the issue that a quorum isn’t present?
mdblanche
Obligatory Lindsay Graham soundtrack
CaseyL
Back at the turn of the 20th Century, Thomas Reed (R-Maine) was elected Speaker of the House. He had a mission: to end the “disappearing quorum.” You think Congress is bad now; it used to be worse. The disappearing quorum was when Representatives were present in the House Chamber, but refused to respond to roll call, making them effectively not present, and thereby preventing a quorum. It was essentially a filibuster mechanism in the House.
Reed hated it. He considered the disappearing quorum to be, among other things, a dereliction of duty. So one day, when Representatives refused to respond to roll call, he directed the Clerk to read out the names of the members who were present. It sounds like a small thing, but it wasn’t. Members of Congress immediately swarmed to get out of the chamber and be absent in fact, but Reed had had the doors locked. The roll was called, all members were ruled to be present, and Congress actually started to get things done.
(I highly recommend Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower, a nonfiction book about pre-WWI America and Europe. She’s more famous for her book about WWI, The Guns of August.. But I think The Proud Tower is even better. She has a whole section devoted to Speaker Reed, and it’s wonderful.)
I mention this to highlight that Congress has always been pretty dysfunctional, and that sometimes a daring person can make what seems like a small change in procedure that lights a fire under people.
I doubt Chuck Schumer is that person, but would be delighted if he proved me wrong. If the GQP walks out of the Senate: excellent! The Democrats can get a whole raft of things done.
mrmoshpotato
Does not compute.
Amir Khalid
The Foo have been putting on YouTube the tracks from Hail Satin, their tribute album to the disco-era Bee Gees. (That album title is a thing of beauty all by itself, I tells ya.) Here’s Tragedy.
Amir Khalid
@RaflW:
Shhh! Don’t let Lindsay find out!
Chetan Murthy
@Amir Khalid: Oh *wow*. Thank you for this, Amir! And thanks to the Foo Fighters. Wowsers.
HumboldtBlue
@CaseyL:
I read Proud Tower back when I pretended I was a college student one time.
I’m coming back to that.
HumboldtBlue
@Amir Khalid:
Lovely snippet of Dave Grohl explaining a beat.
Mike in Oly
@Amir Khalid: They are all such good tracks, but my favorite is You Should Be Dancing. They do it so well.
Ian R
No, Lindsey. Please don’t throw us into that briar patch!
NotMax
@Llelldorin
From the Procedures of the Senate (.pdf):
NotMax
@NotMax
And with all that, neglected to provide the link. Procedures of the Senate .pdf).
HumboldtBlue
I wonder what I need to gather a quorum of motherfuckers.
Then I contemplated on word use.
NotMax
“I’m still big. It’s my principles that got small.”
eclare
@NotMax: Excellent!
Procopius
@CaseyL: Thanks for the reminder of Tom Reed. He was an interesting guy for many reasons, and he ruled with an iron hand, the same way Mitch McConnell rules the GOP today. By the way, another of Barbara Tuchman’s several books that I think you’d really enjoy is The First Salute, which tells the story of a Dutch town in the Caribbean which fired a salute greeting and welcoming an American rebel ship, thereby becoming the first settlement to recognize the newly independent country, even though the war was just getting started. She goes on to tell a lot about trade among the islands, why the Caribbean was so much more important to England than the Colonies, how it came about that the British fleet wasn’t available to prevent the French from landing in Chesapeake Bay, Washington’s march of the rebel army from New Jersey to Yorktown, how the rebels got their guns and ammunition, wonderful details about the Revolution that schools never teach.
prostratedragon
Roberto Grela, Las cuerdas di mi guitarra
JWR
I was going to mention something stupid our dumbass LA County Sheriff, Alex Villaueva. said last week about the Defund The Police “movement”, but didn’t know he’d repeated it last Friday, along with tidbits of right-wing Covid misinformation. Jeebus. And we’re running a special election to recall Gavin Newsom??! :(
sab
Big money pac people jumping in for Nina Turner and running horrible ads against Shontel Brown. Unsurprisingly, Intercept is okay with it.
Robert Sneddon
@Procopius:
I didn’t think the Netherlands recognised the Confederacy, did they?
Geminid
@sab: The OH11 primary has been a brawl since January. Now it’s a war. Some of the attacks on Shontel Brown and supporter Jim Clyburn are appalling, but there is determined pushback.
Do you follow @SashaBeauloux? She is one of many loyal Democrats who has fought back impressively. Ms. Beauloux does not live in OH11-I think she is a Virginian- but this primary was nationalized early on as a proxy fight between Democrats and lefties.
sab
@Geminid: For this I am trying to stay offline. I just want to see what normal people see on TV and in their newspapers.
Geminid
@Geminid: There are Democrats on Turner’s side as well as Brown’s. Many members of the House Progressive Caucus are backing Turner, as well as local elected officials. The race revives the reular Democrat v. Bernie fight of 2016 and 2020. But many of Turner’s hate Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership, and see Turner as a Trojan Horse who will take down the Democrats from within. Turner plays a hard woman, whereas Sanders turned out to be a squish, so lefties believe she is a stronger, better leader.
I don’t know what the Turner-endorsing Democratic Representatives are thinking. I think they are buying trouble, and not the good kind.
Steeplejack
@Robert Sneddon:
Revolutionary War, not the Civil War.
ETA: Assuming this wasn’t snark.
waspuppet
So does Lindsey Graham know he just admitted that what the Texas Democrats are doing is for all practical intents and purposes a filibuster (which I’m told is the only reason America is great) or nah?
Geminid
@sab: That’s a good way to approach a campaign. I get good info on Virginia campaigns from local and state radio reporting, and the ads too. Many more voters are influenced by “old media” than “new,” and in ways it’s a better source.
I live 400 miles from Cleveland, but I can still pull up good reporting on the primary from Ohio’s local TV, newspaper, and internet magazine sites. The letters to the editor are interesting also. But I don’t get the advertising, at least not when and as it is broadcast. Is it a deluge yet?
MattF
I don’t get it. Graham is smarter than that. And there are at least a couple of Republican Senators who wouldn’t go along.
laura
@Amir Khalid: saturday was record store day, and I was planning to get Hail Satin but all copies were gone when I got to the Stereo Advisor. I did get fresh remastered Slits and a John Prine The Oh Boys Years.
I sure hope Shontel Brown pulls out a win over Nina Turner.
Just Chuck
@Llelldorin:
Leave it to Manchin or Sinema, I’m sure they’ll pipe up.
Constance Reader
It would be funny, if it weren’t for the liklihood of the attention whores Manchin and Sinema refusing to show up, or showing up and voting it down, to keep the cameras turned on themselves.
mellowjohn
“… Republicans should leave DC…” –Lindsey Graham
“And not come back.” –mellowjohn
J R in WV
@sab:
We’re making a regular donation to Ms Brown… hope it helps a little. Much prefer an actual Democratic candidate to a neo-wow person!!