WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL ARGUING ABOUT THE TWO PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO LOSE THIS RACE? GARY JOHNSON IS CLEARLY GOING TO WIN.

Trumper, this could be a possible reason that Obama hasn't done everything he said he will...

http://www.youtube.com/...mp;NR=1&v=xTuW-a_qFlA

They had 60 votes in the beginning. I can't help the guy chose to pursue healthcare reform rather than focus on fixing the economy.

Noonan's column today was more instrumentive. And McConnell for all his tough talk has actually worked closer with them than most Republicans ever expected.

They only had complete control of the Senate for 4 months.

Obama signed the stimulus into law before that 4 months of control thus he tried fixing the economy before turning to healthcare.

After those 4 months, the Republicans have been obstructionist.

One can change their opinion if the facts change.

However, that's not the same as changing your opinion to pander.

Oh... to call Romney a dynamic leader instead of someone who lacks a core political belief system of his own.

You deny the fact that every fox pundit has called him a flip flopper. Republicans joke that he's a flip flopper before he was the Rep candidate... come on mang...

http://www.youtube.com/...-ayc&feature=youtu.be

The republican endorsement of Romney.

Scott Brown wasn't elected until January 19, 2010 and not sworn in until February 4, 2010 (http://articles.latimes.com/...on/la-na-brown5-2010feb05). President Obama was sworn in January of 2009. I'm not sure where you're getting 4 months unless you're trying to cobble together time between some in hospital or whom missed voters.

Even when you count at 59, it's still a majority unseen for the incumbent President in decades. And yes, they passed a stimulus that had been under discussion since before he assumed office that ended up being a large bust and rewarding crony capitalism. Along with it, the President made ridiculous promises that folks are now upset he's held to feet to the fire for.

So again, we're back to the crisis of leadership. The guy isn't a leader. It's not a huge secret in DC. My friends on the D side of the aisle working on the Hill and even some within the fed openly admit it. They just prefer his policy choices over those of Romney.

So your point is that Romney is a shrewd politician whose real positions are more moderate and you consider this a bad thing? Fascinating.

I don't agree with everything Romney says. I don't even like all of it. I do think he understands the premise of executive management and the importance of focusing on the nation's core issues rather than on conducting the Larry Summers debate society symphony orchestra.

A shrewd politician is a politician who keeps everyone guessing what he actually stands for?

For some people he is a moderate who happens to have said extremely right wing things... and for others he's extremely right who has said moderate things.

You fluffing republicans should be happy that Obama is a secret Republican. He says moderate things but seems to have some fairly right policies...

Obama is secretly a Republican? Ha, you could have fooled me. Can I quote this when talking to political friends here? They would crack up pretty hard thinking anyone would say such a thing.

You do realize that 59 seats isn't fillibuster proof right? The Republicans have made a record number of fillibusters. They are also on record promoting their intransigence (someone posted a small sample of that in a short video earlier).

As for the 60:
http://www.winningprogressive.org/...esident-obamas-first-term

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...oof-majority-barack-obama

http://sandiegofreepress.org/...-proof-democratic-senate/

http://www.rawstory.com/...oof-majority-for-2-years/

That video you posted Dissidenticn was gold lolol.

Obama does favor many right wing policies. He runs as a progressive but he is pretty moderate....and some say center right.

Hey, Clinton was a right wing Democrat economically... and those two are spending an awful lot of time together lately.

so, you're trying to remind us that Clinton enjoys having sex in the Oval Office?

Yes, you do realize the last time one party had 60+ seats prior to 2009 was in 1979, when most of the folks posting here weren't even alive?

Quit being dense trumper.

The filibuster has NEVER been abused like it has been these last three and a half years. That is beyond debate.

If we had a senate where a simple majority actually won a vote, we would have made much more progress by now.

To claim that the Republicans have been anything more than obstructionist is just delusional. Their whole goal was to stop anything productive from happening, all so they could run against "Obama's bad economy". How fluffing patriotic of them, letting their constituents suffer simply to deny Obama the appearance of having had any sort of victory.

so, we have to get rid of Obama before the Republicans enable the economy to work again?

hmm, even with a Democrat as President, the Republicans are still in charge... go figure.

Is that at all what I said Dibs?

Do you have a point?

well, yeah, but i'm not sure that i'm allowed to show it to you. how old are you?

.... I just remembered why most people don't bother responding to you.

Enjoy making pointless posts, maybe if you keep practicing one day you will be a halfway decent troll..... I doubt it though.

enjoy complaining about how the Republcans won't let a Demoncrat President ruin the country.

i cant wait for this election to be over so i can laugh in your face.

it'd be a waste of time. i don't care who is in charge. just care whether or not i'll be telling them to F off.

ok. im not going to waste any more time here.

Haha, I'm dense? I attended one of the filibuster's of a Bush judicial nominee. A friend of mine actually did a press conference during it (on behalf of Ds that it). You're foolish if you think the filibuster simply came around now. I can clarify: it was used more before the current President's term than during it.

Since you dropped the accusation, why don't you name the bills it has been used on in the last 3 1/2 years. List them out for us. Did it stop PPACA? The stimulus bill? You have such a moot point that it's laughable. What you're upset about is Republicans taking control of the House, but that's a reflection of the will of the voters following an overreach by Obama.

So are you going to concede that you exaggerated your claim when you said "They had 60 votes in the beginning"? or that president Obama didn't try to fix the economy before passing Obamacare? nothing to the stated goals of the republicans "we must make sure he is a one term president."?

Are you denying the historic number of bills the Republicans have fillibustered? Your counter example are only two bills instead of a hard statistic....that makes sense.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...ibuster-ev_b_2018663.html

And so the Republicans proceeded to rack up the highest number of filibusters in American history. During the president's first two years in office, the 111th Congress, there were 137 cloture motions filed to end Republican filibusters. During the president's second two years, the 112th Congress, there were 109 motions filed to end Republican filibusters and we still have a few more months to go. 246 total cloture motions. Compare this to George W. Bush's first term when there were a total of 133 cloture motions filed. Not even a handful of "sensible" Republicans had the guts to break ranks and vote with the Democrats. Meanwhile, on the House side, the Republican majority has voted in near-lockstep against almost everything.

What bills have the Republicans filibustered? To name a few:

H.R. 12 - Paycheck Fairness Act
H.R. 448 -- Elder Abuse Victims Act
H.R. 466 - Wounded Veteran Job Security Act
H.R. 515 - Radioactive Import Deterrence Act
H.R. 549 -- National Bombing Prevention Act
H.R. 577 - Vision Care for Kids Act
H.R. 626 - Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act
H.R. 1029 - Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act
H.R. 1168 -- Veterans Retraining Act
H.R. 1171 - Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization
H.R. 1293 -- Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act
H.R. 1429 -- Stop AIDS in Prison Act
H.R.5281 -- DREAM Act
S.3985 -- Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act
S.3816 -- Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act
S.3369 -- A bill to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, Super PACs and other entities
S.2237 -- Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act
S.2343 -- Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act
S.1660 -- American Jobs Act of 2011
S.3457 -- Veterans Jobs Corps Act

What else?

Here's an astonishing one. The Republicans filibustered the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act -- basically, healthcare for 9/11 heroes. Every Republican senator voted to filibuster this bill. I suppose the Republicans are only interested in 9/11 heroes when they're used as political props.

===
http://www.cnn.com/...s-polarization/index.html

But the number of filibusters by Republicans has escalated, and they have been far more willing to use the tactic than their opponents. Since 2007, the Senate Historical Office has shown, Democrats have had to end Republican filibusters more than 360 times, a historic record.
======

And now I go the way of Dissidenticn. There is nothing more for me to say on this topic.

imo, you're ruining your funny all caps gimmick by being openly political (and giving libertarians your unabashed support)

Re-read trumper, I said

"The filibuster has NEVER been abused like it has been these last three and a half years. That is beyond debate."

I can totally where you would then argue that I said that it had never ever been used in prior sessions of Congress. Your total lack of reading comprehension is not surprising though.

The term "more" has an exact definition. It is 100% factually inaccurate when you claim that there were more cloture motions during the George W Bush presidency. Just flat out wrong. Either you are lying through your teeth or just willfully ignorant.

As for proof, here's a nice writeup, complete with a handy graph. Since we all know that your reading skills are poor at best, you may want to just look at the pretty picture, noticing the sudden, massive uptick at the far right side of the graph.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...5/15/gIQAVHf0RU_blog.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...id=GzpEUJ7LEeG8pnJ7y9v4Zg

MauricXe's list (well, the author he copied it from) is a start, but incomplete. Every major piece of legislation has been under filibuster before the text is even written.

Actually, there were more cloture votes filed in the 110th Congress (139) than in the following Congresses, when President Bush was in office.

110 2007-2008 139 112 61

http://www.senate.gov/...motions/clotureCounts.htm

Of course what you're failing to note is cloture filings are made by the majority leader any time they foresee any risk. In this case, Reid files them all the time. Yet as you can see, most don't fail. If you study the lists, you will realize the predominance comes from Reid-controlled Senates, ie he uses the tactic frequently.

It's also important to note sometimes they're filed against fellow Democrats, for instance against Ron Wyden when he threatened to filibuster the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Something I don't think most folks here would have a problem if it were filibustered.

110 was a Democratic-majority Senate. The filibusters were being used by the Republicans.

Yes trumper, it is the majority party's fault that the Republicans have vowed near total non-participation. Reid "using the tactic" as you put it, is using the tactic of calling for the end of a Republican logjam. How evil of him, trying to get the Senate to actually vote on things.