{"id":16904,"date":"2013-01-08T20:10:23","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T01:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=16904"},"modified":"2013-01-08T20:10:23","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T01:10:23","slug":"quin-is-wrong-on-procedure-right-on-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/16904\/quin-is-wrong-on-procedure-right-on-substance\/","title":{"rendered":"Quin is Wrong on Procedure, Right on Substance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of the volleys exchanged<\/a>, let\u2019s review how a senatorial hold works.<\/p>\n

From the U.S. Senate\u2019s reference page<\/a> on chamber rules:<\/p>\n

hold<\/strong> –\u00a0An informal practice by which a senator informs his or her floor leader that he or she does not wish a particular bill or other measure to reach the floor for consideration. The majority leader need not follow the senator’s wishes, but is on notice that the opposing senator may filibuster any motion to proceed to consider the measure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note the part stating, \u201cThe majority leader need not follow the senator\u2019s wishes, but is on notice that the opposing senator may filibuster any motion to proceed to consider the measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a filibuster<\/a>?<\/p>\n

filibuster <\/strong>–\u00a0Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bear in mind that the majority leader, i.e. Harry Reid (D-NV), \u201cneed not follow the senator\u2019s wishes\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Recall also Reid\u2019s musings<\/a> that he\u2019d like to enact the so-called \u2018nuclear option\u2019 to remove the usual supermajority requirement for overcoming a filibuster, and replace it with a simple majority.\u00a0 So, if the Senate Democratic caucus wants to, they can 1) refuse to honor any hold requests on Hagel, and 2) change Senate rules on filibusters to shut down the opposition.\u00a0 With several<\/a> news outlets<\/a> reporting that President Barack Obama is ready to pick a fight over Hagel, I think Reid does both if Republicans try to kill Obama\u2019s nominee for Defense Secretary with obstructionist procedural tactics.<\/p>\n

Maybe if Hagel was nominated for some second tier Cabinet office Republicans could get away with relying on informal procedures to block his next career move.\u00a0 But with Obama riding high after the fiscal cliff negotiations \u2013 Quin\u2019s optimism notwithstanding<\/a> \u2013 I think Republicans will lose, and lose big, with the public if they try to kill Obama\u2019s top Pentagon pick on procedure rather than substance.<\/p>\n

It should be said that I don\u2019t disagree with any of Quin\u2019s criticisms<\/em> of Hagel.\u00a0 Instead, my point of departure is with Quin\u2019s reliance on procedural obstruction<\/em> rather than tough questioning and reasoned argument.\u00a0 Conservatives have one of the most intellectually articulate groups of senators in living memory with the likes of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and others.\u00a0 Let them and military stalwarts like John McCain and Lindsey Graham make a coordinated, sustained case against Hagel and his views on foreign policy.\u00a0 In the process, they might even discover a countervailing vision that convinces the American people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In light of the volleys exchanged, let\u2019s review how a senatorial hold works. From the U.S. Senate\u2019s reference page on chamber rules: hold –\u00a0An informal practice by which a senator informs his or her floor leader that he or she does not wish a particular bill or other measure to reach the floor for consideration. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[143,1760,2526,518,216,77,3989,1479,2922,178],"class_list":["post-16904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-barack-obama","tag-chuck-hagel","tag-defense","tag-filibuster","tag-foreign-policy","tag-harry-reid","tag-hold","tag-quin-hillyer","tag-rules","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16909,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904\/revisions\/16909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}