Roadblock Blog

Nihilism and the Coburn Omnibus

If you've been around here, you've seen me rail against the GOP for the way they try to throw sand into the gears of the Senate to try to grind business to a halt. Or as close to it as they can.

Here's the back story: the Senate was set up to be the more deliberative body, and over the decades and centuries, it has evolved a series of arcane rules giving power to single Senators and a minority to keep things from being railroaded through the Senate. One way this is done is the rules around a 'hold,' where one Senator can object to unanimous consent and force the Senate to debate a measure. It's a good thing in theory because it gives a single Senator the chance to bring an issue to public light and keep things from passing noiselessly and unnoticed. However, in a modern world, and with today's GOP, it has turned into a weapon of legislative destruction.

There are many, many bills that the Senate takes up that are completely non-controversial, things that no one objects to - that don't have a huge effect on the workings of our country - and the way the Senate deals with them is through unanimous consent. The complexity of modern government has gotten to the point where the Senate has to deal with so many bills that the calendar of the Senate has gotten so packed there is literally not enough time to cover everything. Doing non-controversial bills with unanimous consent is the only way to get everything done.

But, when one party doesn't want to get things done ... well, you can see where there would be a problem. And there is. The Roadblock Republicans have made it a major part of their strategy (heck, THE major part of their strategy) to use these tools to block everything they can. Tom Coburn, a single Senator from Oklahoma, has 80(!) holds all by himself. Finally, Harry Reid struck back:

<blockquote>Senate Democratic leaders are threatening a weekend session unless Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) releases his hold on nearly three dozen bills.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is laying plans to keep Congress’s upper chamber at work into Saturday and Sunday to resolve the matter. Although some GOP senators acknowledge irritation with their colleague’s penchant for routinely slowing bills, they save their sharpest words for Reid — saying the Democratic leader has united them in his attempts to divide them.[...]

Senate Democratic leaders are threatening a weekend session unless Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) releases his hold on nearly three dozen bills.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is laying plans to keep Congress’s upper chamber at work into Saturday and Sunday to resolve the matter. Although some GOP senators acknowledge irritation with their colleague’s penchant for routinely slowing bills, they save their sharpest words for Reid — saying the Democratic leader has united them in his attempts to divide them.</blockquote>

Just look at that. The GOP thinks this is an attempt to "divide them." They are children, with nothing but frat-house loyalty holding them together. They are more interested in "holding together" than they are with getting anything done. This is, unfortunately, what the GOP has become: a nihilistic, destructive force in American politics that wants to do nothing but make it impossible for the government to function.