The Daily Background

Well, it now seems that Senate Democrats will hold their Republican colleagues’ feet to the fire on the latest Iraq resolution, and force them to actually mount an old school cots-in-the-hallways filibuster tomorrow night. The amendment in question “requires George Bush to ‘commence the reduction of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act’ and mandates a withdrawal of most combat forces by April 30, 2008.” Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) announced on the Senate floor today:

Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end. They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops.

They are denying us an up or down — yes or no — vote on the most important issue our country faces.

I would like to inform the Republican leadership and all my colleagues that we have no intention of backing down.

If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday.

The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it.

At the very least, this should be interesting. A lot of people in the blogosphere, myself included, have been proponents of the idea that on really, truly important issues, simple cloture votes should be avoided, and that anybody threatening a filibuster had better be prepared to actually bring one to the floor, along with all the media attention and spectacle that that entails. Says Senator Durbin (D-IL), sorry for all caps:

NOW, I’VE BEEN HERE FOR FOR A FEW YEARS AND I HAVEN’T — NOW, I’VE BEEN HERE FOR A FEW YEARS, AND I HAVEN’T SEEN A FULL-THROATED, FULLY IMPLEMENTED FILIBUSTER, THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE RECALLED FROM “MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON,” WHEN JIMMY STEWART STOOD AT HIS DESK UNTIL HE CRUMPLED IN EXHAUSTION, FILIBUSTERING A BILL TO STOP IT. OVER THE YEARS, OUR GENTILITY HAS LED TO US A DIFFERENT KIND OF FILIBUSTER. IT’S A FILIBUSTER IN NAME ONLY, WHERE ONE SIDE SAYS, WELL, WE’RE JUST GOING TO KEEP THIS DEBATE GOING ON INDEFINITELY AND THE OTHER SIDE SAYS, WE’LL BRING THE DEBATE TO A CLOSE, A MOTION FOR CLOTURE, BRINGING IT TO A CLOSE AND WE’LL SEE YOU IN 30 HOURS. HAVE A GOOD TIME. NEIGHBOR YOU WANT TO GO BACK AND HAVE A NICE DINNER WITH YOUR FRIENDS. WE’LL SEE YOU TOMORROW MORNING. WELL, WE’RE GOING TO CHANGE THAT PROCEDURE THIS WEEK. SINCE THE REPUBLICAN SIDE HAS DECIDED THAT THEY WANT TO FILIBUSTER OUR EFFORT TO DEBATE THE WAR POLICY ON IRAQ, WE HAVE DECIDED ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A REAL FILIBUSTER.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog