Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) floated a plan to reinstate a “talking filibuster” in the Senate but it was killed almost immediately when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he won’t support it, Punchbowl News reports.
Said Manchin: “The majority of my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus – they’ve changed. They’ve changed their mind. I respect that. You have a right to change your mind. I haven’t. I hope they respect that too. I’ve never changed my mind on the filibuster.”
“I wish that I could say with a degree of certainty that I feel like things are getting better… but in this instance I’m not sure—and this really saddens me to think—I’m not sure that the worst is behind us.”
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), when asked by the Midnight Sun to reflect on the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection.
EMILY’s List put out a statement threatening to pull its endorsement of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) unless she relents on her opposition to changing the filibuster in order to advance voting rights legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will propose that the Senate reinstate the “talking filibuster,” where senators must stand and continue debate in order to block bills, PBS Newshour reports.
The 13 members of the GOP Doctors Caucus sent a letter to White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci demanding he apologize for calling Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) a “moron,” Fox News reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned that Democrats will pay a political price if they move to eliminate the filibuster — even if the effort fails, ABC News reports.
Said McConnell: “But too many of our colleagues across the aisle still want to respond to a 50-50 Senate with a rule-breaking power grab. Voting to break this institution will not be a free vote or a harmless action, even if their effort fails. An unprincipled attempt at grabbing power is not harmless just because it fails. Voting to break the Senate is not cost-free just because a bipartisan majority of your colleagues have the wisdom to stop you.”
“Senate Democrats are scrambling for a Plan B to pass voting rights legislation after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced last week that they would not vote to change the Senate’s filibuster rule despite the pleading of President Joe Biden,” The Hill reports.
“Now some Democrats are discussing a novel approach to circumventing a Republican filibuster that may allow voting rights legislation to pass with 51 votes without changing the Senate’s rules.”
“These Democrats, including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), are exploring the possibility of forcing Senate Republicans to actually hold the floor with speeches and procedural motions.”
Punchbowl News: “It’s unclear what Schumer is planning. He’s promised a cloture vote on the voting-rights bill, and if that fails – it will thanks to unified GOP opposition to the legislation – then Schumer has vowed to hold a vote on changing Senate rules on the filibuster. What changes he will suggest are unclear. Schumer could move to eliminate the filibuster outright or modify the process to make filibustering more difficult.”
“Senate Democrats are convening a special, in-person caucus meeting on Tuesday as they brace for a fight on voting rights and the filibuster to come to a head,” The Hill reports.
“Unlike most of the caucus meetings in the wake of the rise of the omicron coronavirus variant, the meeting will be in person.”
“Senate Democrats plan to press ahead this week with an effort to push new voting rights protections through Congress, in an all but doomed attempt to enact a key piece of President Biden’s agenda that has been undercut by members of his own party,” the New York Times reports.
“The push to proceed even in the face of almost certain failure reflects the party’s conundrum, facing two key defections in its ranks and a wall of Republican opposition.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said that she is “not going to absolve” any member of the Senate who will not take action to pass voting rights legislation when she was asked specifically about Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Axios reports.
Said Harris: “As I’ve said before, there are a hundred members of the United States Senate, and I’m not going to absolve — nor should any of us — absolve any member of the United States Senate from taking on a responsibility to follow through on the oath that they all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
“Martin Luther King III came to Arizona with harsh words for Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, whose refusal to change the Senate’s Jim Crow-era filibuster rules makes voting rights legislation unlikely to pass,” the AP reports.
Said King: “History will remember Sen. Sinema, I believe unkindly, for her position on the filibuster.”
He added: “Our daughter has less rights around voting than she had when she was born. I can’t imagine what my mother and father would say about that. I’m sure they’re turning over and over in their graves about this.”
“Mark recognizes, like I do, that for something to become the law, it requires Republicans and Democrats to agree. We don’t always agree, but he’s a person who is reliable and you can trust him to follow through with this word.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by the Arizona Republic, about Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
Punchbowl News: “This week will be dominated by the Senate’s battle over voting rights and the filibuster. Despite a big push by President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and progressive groups, Democrats are not going to be able to overcome a GOP filibuster to pass a voting rights bill. And Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are firmly against getting rid of the filibuster, in case you somehow missed that last week.”
“The question then becomes whether the bipartisan group looking at changing the Electoral Count Act of 1887 led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) picks up steam, and whether Democrats will settle for this. That group is currently looking at changes to the ECA, but also has its sights on bolstering protections for election workers and renewing election grants. Realistically, with the large-scale voting rights package that Democrats crafted unlikely to go anywhere, if Biden wants a victory, it may be with this bipartisan effort.”
The Bulwark: The Electoral Count Act is a zero-day exploit waiting to happen.
“It has been a mistake to have backroom conversations with Manchin and Sinema for the last four months, or five months. Those conversations have gotten nowhere. But what they have done is demoralize tens of millions of Americans.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by the Associated Press.
Steve Clemons, a close confidant of Sen. Joe Manchin’s, told Ryan Lizza what the West Virginia Democrat is thinking.
“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) key deadline of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday for a Senate vote on election and voting legislation and a bid to change the chamber’s filibuster rules will come and go before the chamber takes up the proposals,” Politico reports.
Punchbowl News: “Schumer doesn’t have the votes to win either of those fights. But after Schumer and President Joe Biden have gone this far playing a losing hand on these two high-profile issues, they’ve apparently decided to ride it all the way to the bitter end, even if it means exposing vulnerable Democratic senators to a politically difficult vote. That’s some interesting member management.
“Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a GOP-led effort to impose sanctions on a Russian natural-gas pipeline amid deteriorating talks with Moscow over its military buildup along Ukraine’s eastern border,” Politico reports.
“The nearly party-line vote, 55-44, came after an aggressive effort by the Biden administration to limit Democratic defections on the legislation, which the White House viewed as a bid to undercut its strategy to deter a Russian invasion. In the end, six Democrats — many of them vulnerable to GOP challengers in November — and all Republicans but one backed the legislation, falling short of the requisite 60 votes.”
Before President Biden arrives on Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Democrats and push voting rights, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is mulling a Senate floor speech at noon to argue against changing the filibuster in order to pass the legislation, Politico reports.
As one Senate source said: “Sinema is having Joe Biden for lunch.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.