It’s no secret that Democrats have had astonishingly little success on the legislative front since the beginning of this Congressional term.
But desperate times call for desperate measures, even if that means a complete and total flip flop from the principles the Biden Democrats held dear only recently.
And Tom Cotton got an assist from an unlikely source while defending the Senate’s filibuster.
On Wednesday, Senator Cotton took to the Senate floor with an impassioned defense of the filibuster.
The curveball is that his remarks consisted almost entirely of quotes made by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) back when it was his party in the minority.
🚨 BREAKING: Chuck Schumer* speaks on the Senate floor in defense of the filibuster.
*Senator Cotton’s speech consisted entirely of Senator Schumer’s past statements. pic.twitter.com/zGfbpr7G5t
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 12, 2022
Cotton stated that Schumer had “so eloquently” defended the Senate’s “rules, customs and traditions” – that he felt compelled to let those words make the case for the filibuster now.
Using Schumer’s own words, Cotton suggested that the majority Democrats, in seeking to undermine the filibuster, have put the U.S. on the “precipice of a constitutional crisis” and said that the Founding Fathers purposely designed the Senate to have checks and balances and prevent majority rule.
Reading from transcripts of Schumer’s prior remarks, Cotton intoned, “The bottom line is very simple. The ideologues of the Senate want to turn what the Founding Fathers called the cooling saucer of Democracy into a rubber stamp of dictatorship. They will make this country into a banana republic where if you don’t get your way, you change the rules.”
Always with a penchant for theatrics, Schumer of yesteryear makes perhaps the most compelling argument against his current plans.
Schumer now says that he would like to begin debate on filibuster “reform” by January 17th in response to Republicans having blocked Democrat attempts to pass election takeover bills.
But back before Democrats were a majority in the Senate, Schumer derided attempts to weaken the filibuster as a “nuclear option.”
Cotton said, quoting Schumer, “The nuclear option is being pushed largely by the radioactive rhetoric of a small band of radicals who hold in their hands the political fortunes of the president.”
In his own words, Cotton said, “Those are powerful words. But they are not mine. Every word of my speech today was originally spoken by our esteemed colleague, the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer . . . Think about it, the narrowest majority in Senate history wants to break the Senate rules to control how voters in every state elect Senators. Could there be a better argument to preserve the Senate’s rules, customs and traditions?”
During a speech in Georgia, President Biden called for a change to Senate rules and possibly even eliminate the filibuster in order to pass two stalled bills.
Later that same week, however, Senators Sinema (D-AZ) and Manchin (D-WV) again voiced opposition to any weakening of the filibuster.
US Political Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
