Picture, Joke, And Quote Of The Day

Picture of the Day:

Joke of the Day: 

Quote of the Day: 

 "Of particular importance in protecting minority rights is Senate Rule 22, which requires a supermajority of two-thirds of Senators to end debate on any proposal to amend the Senate Rules. In the past, a few Senate majorities, frustrated by their inability to get certain bills and nominations to a vote, have threatened to ignore this two-thirds requirement and instead to change one or more debate rules by a simple majority. Because that step would change the Senate into a legislative body where the majority can, whenever it wishes, change the rules, it has been dubbed the “nuclear option.”

Arguments about the nuclear option are not new. This question has been debated for decades. Confronting the same question in 1949, Senator Arthur Vandenberg, a giant of the Senate and one of my predecessors from Michigan, said that if the majority can change the rules at will, “there are no rules except the transient, unregulated wishes of a majority of whatever quorum is temporarily in control of the Senate.” Changing the rules, in violation of the rules, by a simple majority vote is not a one-time action. If a Senate majority demonstrates it can make such a change once, there are no rules that bind a majority, and all future majorities will feel free to exercise the same power, not just on judges and executive appointments but on legislation...

...Today, we once again are moving down a destructive path. The issue is not whether to change the rules. I support changing the rules to allow a President to get a vote on nominees to executive and most judicial positions. This is not about the ends, but means. Pursuing the nuclear option in this manner removes an important check on majority overreach which is central to our system of government. As Senator Vandenberg warned us, if a Senate majority decides to pursue its aims unrestrained by the rules, we will have sacrificed a professed vital principle for the sake of momentary gain." --Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)