Changing filibuster rules not an option, say Dem aides — plus Reid and Obama

As Senate Democrats grapple with options to pass the healthcare reform bill in the wake of Tuesday’s election loss in Massachusetts, the option of changing the chamber’s filibuster rules is off the table.

 

A senior Democratic aide said leaders haven’t considered lowering the threshold for a filibuster, as has been done before as recently as 1975, when the threshold was lowered from 67 to the current 60.

 

Now at 59 seats with GOP candidate Scott Brown’s victory, Democrats are denied their filibuster-proof majority, leading some liberal bloggers as well as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to suggest simply changing the rules.

 

But a senior Democratic aide this week said that isn’t likely, given the rancorous debate in 2005, when Republicans then controlled the Senate and considered changing the filibuster rules in light of a fight over judicial nominations. The so-called “nuclear option” was eventually dismissed.

 

“You would be changing the institution,” the Democratic aide said of the idea. “This can be a frustrating place, but the minority still has its rights. I don’t know that that’s ever been on the table.”

 

In the House, Rep. Jim McDermott this week introduced a resolution urging the Senate to lower the filibuster threshold, adding in a statement that the legislative tactic “has begun to erode the integrity of our Democratic process.”

 

McDermott referenced a years-long effort by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to lower the threshold.

 

Reid himself shot down the option in his 2008 book “The Good Fight.” Recalling the “nuclear option” debate in 2005, Reid compared lowering the filibuster threshold to “opening Pandora’s Box.”

 

“It was just a matter of time before a Senate leader who couldn’t get his way on something moved to eliminate the filibuster for regular business,” Reid wrote. “And that, simply put, would be the end of the United States Senate… A filibuster is the minority’s way of not allowing the majority to shut off debate, and without robust debate, the Senate is crippled.”

 

In a Jan. 6 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also said the idea isn’t being actively considered. “I have not heard discussion here about support for changing those rules,” Gibbs said.

 

Even Obama himself, referencing the 2005 debate, is on record opposing the idea.

 

“The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster - if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate - then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse,” Obama said in an April 2005 speech in Washington.