----- Original Message -----
From: "Shane Mage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Nathan. wrote on Nov. 25:
"... on the pro-union side of the ledger:
.... Support of the Striker Replacement bill (filibustered by GOP
Senators)..."
>His party controlled the Senate. He himself held the power
>of the gavel as President of the Senate (his sole constitutional
>responsibility).
>But he capitulated to the mere threat of a filibuster. The *first* "stop"
to
>pull out would have been to hold the Senate in permanent 24/7
>session--forcing the spectacle of a real filibuster (and giving the country
>the chance to see Lott, in character, playing the Bilbo role). And if they
>kept going after the collapse of Thurmond and a few others, mobilizing the
>power of the Presidency to demand, incessantly, 'Why are they holding up
>all sorts of vital (sic) legislation just to keep the Senate from
>*voting*?'! The whole 'striker replacement' charade... was nothing but a
>fraud."
A slightly bizarre argument, since the GOP Senators were proudly
filibustering not only striker replacement, but campaign finance and every
other Dem initiative in 1994. So the C-SPAN junkies could see a few 24/7
sessions on TV; big woop. I know, I know - we've all seen Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington, so the heroic midnight marathon speechaton always captivates the
public's imagination. Maybe some different strategies in 1994 would have
broken some of the GOP filibusters but the raw fact is that 40 Senators have
the ability to block any vote, without needing the drama of longwinded
speeches.
You can play all the blame games against the majority of Senators (almost
all Dems) who supported striker replacement legislation, but it's just a
convenient blinder to support the ideological line that there is no
difference between the parties, despite the obvious list of differences on
union issues I listed. A majority in the House backed by the Dem leadership
passed striker replacement, the Dem leadership and members supported it in
the Senate, and a Dem President supported it, and it was a minority of GOP
Senators that blocked it. That's the bottom-line reality and the
bottom-line reality between the parties on union issues.
The same was true in 1966 when a GOP Senate filibuster defeated labor law
reform; the same was true in 1978 when a GOP filibuster defeated labor law
reform; and the same was true in 1994.
The Dems sell-out to corporate interests on a range of issues, but on basic
labor law votes, the differences between the parties are large and, if
anything, more dramatic today than in the past.
-- Nathan Newman
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
