A farewell to the longest-serving federal legislator in American history, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Including excerpts from the tributes of his colleagues, and recommending that certain modern abusive practices be ended to restore the true glory of the institution he loved, served, and defended so well for so long – the United States Senate.

In a discussion today of the resolution proposed by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Extractors) to reduce the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, and the Obama Administration’s official position that such a resolution would get a veto, John Broder of the New York Times broke some news: only 51 votes are necessary to pass the GOP Senator’s resolution.

A second working thread to help selise finish formulating her Seminal diary about forcing the real, physical filibuster back to life in the Senate, and to help her discuss and review what she hopes to learn, or needs to ask, about that proposition from the office of the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian.

A working thread to help selise finish formulating her Seminal diary about forcing the real, physical filibuster back to life in the Senate, to help her discuss and review what she hopes to learn, or needs to ask, about that proposition from the office of the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian.

Rachel Maddow had another spectacular show last night, and one segment in particular had me absolutely riveted. She just listed one-by-one, like a relentless drum beat, some of the many instances of Republicans embracing and taking credit for federal stimulus funds after voting against that exact same stimulus legislation and demonizing it as worthless and exorbitant.

Demonstrating how the democratic process of Congress was end-run and subverted by those negotiating in backrooms with the White House to create a health care reform bill, as support for why Congress should be allowed to do its own work.

I am a life long Democrat and Liberal. There is nothing but pride in those appellations for me. I have been a supporter of the idea of the Big Tent since before I really understood that it did to refer to the Party and the Circus. However, there is a limit and that limit has been reached. It is not acceptable for politicians to be able to call themselves Democrats and then piss on the party’s agenda from a great height.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net”

I am specifically looking at the Blue Dogs in the House and Senators Bayh, Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, and Lieberman. The time has come for them to either leave the party or be replaced. You have collectively benefited from millions of dollars of campaign donations from the DSCC and from the work of tens of thousands of union members and Democratic volunteers over the course of your political careers.

The modern House and Senate’s private deals and silent filibusters, and why it doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, that way.

AARP has announced that their organization will ‘score’ the cloture vote on the Manager’s Amendment on health care ‘reform’ as a Key Vote, informing their members how Senators voted when the election comes around. Of course, AARP favors the Manager’s Amendment, which includes the odious forced-birth Nelson language that has led NOW, NARAL/Pro-Choice America, and Planned Parenthood to come out against the bill. Notorious for allowing Senators to slide on cloture votes in the past, will these organizations put their considerable muscle behind their opposition and announce they plan to ‘score’ votes on cloture as well as the bill itself?

Amid the drama today regarding the Senate cloture vote (It passed 60-39. Yay, us), was another, more insidious drama taking place behind the scenes.