Wow.
(Beltway Confidential) — In a stunning turn of events this evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used an arcane legislative maneuver to effectively rewrite Senate rules to make it harder for the minority party to force uncomfortable votes on the majority.
The buildup to this point started on Tuesday, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to force a vote on President Obama’s jobs bill as well as other Republican priorities by offering them as amendments to the China currency bill. Reid blocked the move.
Tonight, McConnell made what’s called a “motion to suspend the rules,” to allow a vote on the amendments. Such motions are almost always defeated, because they require a two-thirds majority to pass. But they’re another way for the minority party to force uncomfortable votes. Even though the minority party doesn’t get a direct vote on the amendment, how somebody votes on the motion becomes a sort of proxy for such a vote. In this case, for instance, if Democrats had voted down a motion for a vote on Obama’s jobs bill, it would have put them in an awkward spot.
Though it’s been the standing practice of the Senate to allow such motions by the majority, tonight Reid broke with precedent and ruled McConnell’s motion out of order. The Senate parliamentarian said the move was unprecedented, and then the Democratic chair, obviously, ruled in favor of Reid. While McConnell appealed the ruling, Reid won a 51 to 48 vote rejecting the appeal.
HT: sb