Cruz's "Filibuster"Follow

For those who aren't aware; Sen. Ted Cruz is currently "filibustering" in order to stop the removal of the "defunding Obamacare" section of the house bill that will prevent a Government shutdown. Except it's not a filibuster, as Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed today, which means there will be a vote on it Wednesday at 1p regardless of Cruz's "filibuster". Cruz is just grandstanding in order to raise his profile & make the House Republicans less pissed, I suppose.

The best part is, he read from "Green Eggs & Ham" because, according to him, “they do not like Obamacare in a box, with a fox, in a house, or with a mouse.” Except, as anyone who actually read that book knows, the lesson is that once the narrator tries Green Eggs & Ham, he likes it.

Could Congress be any more broken? Could Cruz be anymore clueless as to how Congress works? Unfortunately, the answer to both of those is "probably".

Video here.



Edited, Sep 24th 2013 10:35pm by Omegavegeta

Cruz is one of the people spearheading the movement against Obamacare saying that they should pass a spending resolution that defunds Obamacare as a condition to keeping the government open. He and his ilk successfully goaded the House into passing such a bill but stepped in it a little when he suggested that the Senate would pass a 'clean' resolution (keeping Obamacare funding) and it was up to the House to reject it. Boehner said that it was up to the Senate to stop it in the Senate and so now Cruz is doing this little song and dance so he can pretend that he did something. It's essentially guaranteed that a clean bill will pass the Senate and very likely that such a bill will pass the House once Boehner gives up on the 'Hastert Rule' and accepts that most of the votes will come from House Democrats.

In a saner world, someone making such a big deal out of something they can't stop would lead to that person's embarrassment when they fail to stop it. But this is modern GOP Tea Party politics and apologists will slap Cruz on the back and say what a great job he did holding onto his convictions.

Split pea soup is amazing, soup can't get much better.

If a politician's actions to hold onto his/her convictions repeatedly and indisputably (perhaps even admittedly) attempts to bring governing to a standstill, they're doing it wrong.

It's a 'good of the many is greater than the good of the few (or one egotistical power-hungry, money grubbing, opportunistic imbecilic wannabe law-maker' ) type thing.

Except he isn't holding onto anyhting, really. He's only conducting the pseudo-filibuster because he was shamed into it by House Republicans. And it's an empty gesture anyway since the legislation is certain to pass, stripped of the defund provision. The only thing he's doing is showboating.

Missin' the point, Captain Miss the Point.

A legitimate filibuster would have a practical impact: delaying the legislation from reaching the floor and potentially shelving it all together. What Cruz is doing is worth less than that. No one seriously expects Senate floor oratory to make the difference but workable procedural tactics do. This ain't one of them. He's not filibustering, he's showboating.

I don't give a shit about the content of the speech, just saying that it's pointless from a mechanics point of view and serves no purpose other than to raise his stature among the Tea Party. You would agree, yes? I'm not saying we should be shocked or surprised or whatever your cynical little heart desires, just that you'd agree with the basic assessment?


Edited, Sep 25th 2013 11:35am by Jophiel

That wasn't purposeful, it was just a basic lack of caring

Apparently he left at noon to go to his interview with Rush, even though he technically could have kept going until 1PM when the cloture vote will be called.

We shouldn't hold that against him, he's basically talking to the same audience, just trading one podium for another.

A legitimate filibuster would have a practical impact: delaying the legislation from reaching the floor and potentially shelving it all together. What Cruz is doing is worth less than that. No one seriously expects Senate floor oratory to make the difference but workable procedural tactics do. This ain't one of them. He's not filibustering, he's showboating.

We agree. The implication that this is in any way unusual for any senator is where we part ways, I'd assume.

Not unusual in motive, just in execution. Don't have daily 14-hour yakfests about children's literature. So I guess it's unusual "for any senator" in that most don't bother doing it.

Fair point. I'd say most that are seriously planning on running for President do similar things, though of smaller scale. Biden spent a year looking for sound bites in committee hearings, smiling awkwardly after "barbs" that made no sense most of the time.

Lazy.

So in essence Democrats are throwing a fit

I don't think that phrase means what you think it means. No one seems to much care. Did you mean "are laughing at Cruz like he was a retarded organ grinder's monkey and David Koch was holding his chain"