Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi joined U.S. Rep. Lloyd Dogget, D-Austin, in Austin March 22, and admitted that with the filibuster she sees no hope for the Senate passing abortion protectionsThat's the bluntest formulation of"catch-22" – the illegitimate, naked power at the symbolic center of Joseph Heller's novel of that name, set during World War II and published in 1961.
Under Rule 22 and related Senate procedures, the filibuster is shrouded in a halo of manufactured myths:In fact, the U.S. founders, having experienced the failure of the Articles of Confederation, explicitlyempowering minority rule or allowing endless debate, and the filibuster didn't fully take form until the 19th century.That the filibuster encourages spirited debate and embodies the Senate's historical role of legislative"deliberation.
. Jentleson, formerly an aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, traces the early development of the filibuster, despite the prevailing conviction of the founders that legislatures should act by reasonable debate concluded by majority vote. That belief became so reflexive that virtually no one noticed that a revision of the Senate rules in 1806 had indirectly made it possible for unscrupulous senators to block and defeat any bill by delay.
The first champion of obstruction was Sen. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, a fanatical defender of slavery who with his fellow Southerners employed what wasn't yet called the"filibuster" to block any bill that he believed would weaken Southern power. Calhoun was an enthusiastic racist, described slavery as"a positive good" for those enslaved, and always had sufficient allies to maintain a firewall against reform.
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