Tag: filibuster

Pollster Frank Luntz Has the Absolute Dumbest Take on Cory Booker’s Filibuster to Nowhere

Pollster Frank Luntz has said some dumb things over the years, but his take on Senator Cory Booker’s recent, and completely pointless filibuster, really takes the cake. This was over the top, even for him.

During an appearance on News Nation, Luntz suggested that Booker’s filibuster ‘may have changed the course of political history.’

Huh? Really, Frank?

The Hill reports:

Frank Luntz: Booker marathon speech ‘may have changed the course of political history’

Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) “may have changed the course of political history” with his marathon speech breaking the Senate’s record for the longest floor speech in its history.

“I want to emphasize what Cory Booker did over the last 24 hours may have changed the course of political history. I watched a lot of it. I listened to words.  I listened to phrases,” Luntz said during a Tuesday evening appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”

He confirmed that Booker’s unprecedented feat “struck a tone” with Americans in the midst of the Trump administration’s controversial policies.

“He struck the kind of tone that grassroots Democrats are looking for. He gave them a reason to fight. He gave them a reason to stand up and say, this is my country too,” Luntz told anchor Leland Vittert.

“Of course, every Republican watching will say, ‘This is nonsense.’  But he is not speaking just to Republicans, he’s speaking to Americans, and what I saw over the last 25 hours absolutely blew me away,” he added.

Keep reading

Booker Previously Labeled Filibusters An ‘Abuse Of Power’ Years Prior To Setting Senate Speech Record

Democrat New Jersey Senator Cory Booker previously labeled Senate filibusters an “abuse of power” in 2022, prior to launching yesterday’s 25-hour filibuster on Tuesday — the longest in U.S. Senate history.

A filibuster is “a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question,” according to the U.S. Senate website.

Booker (D-N.J.) began his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday, going on to speak for “25 hours and 5 minutes,” highly contradicting his previous comments — when he referred to the tactic as “abuse.”

“The filibuster has been abused to stop reforms supported by the vast majority of Americans–from background checks to protecting the right to vote. We must stop this abuse of power,” Booker wrote in January 2022.

Booker’s historically lengthy speech surpassed former Senator Strom Thurmond, who previously held the record, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

The New Jersey senator accomplished the feat without “eating any food” or drinking any water for the entire duration of his speech, which helped him avoid the need to use a restroom. However, other reports have claimed that he only took a few quick sips of water throughout his speech.

“I don’t want my doctor to be mad at me, but I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand, so I did not have to go to the bathroom,” Booker stated on Tuesday night.

“My challenge was, was that my strategy was to stop eating, I think I stopped eating on Friday, and then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday, and that had its benefits and it had its really downsides,” he continued. “And so instead of fighting or figuring out how to go to the bathroom, I ended up, I think really, unfortunately, dehydrating myself.”

To retain the floor, Booker had to remain standing and was not able to leave his desk for the duration of his “marathon” speech.

Keep reading

Senate Democrats Use the Jim Crow Filibuster to Protect the Kremlin

That the filibuster is an inherently racist tool, a relic of Jim Crow, is an odd position for Democrats to take given that just yesterday, they used the filibuster to block legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Indeed, Sen. Cruz’s bill not only attracted the votes of forty-nine out of fifty Republican Senators (the only exception was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)), but also six Democratic Senators who face close races in 2022 and/or are from purple states: Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA). That meant that Cruz had 55 votes for his bill — a clear majority. So why did it not pass? Because Senate Democrats invoked the racist Jim Crow relic in order to refuse to allow a vote on that bill unless it first attained 60 votes to close the debate. In other words, Democrats — on Thursday— used the filibuster to block Cruz’s bill despite its having the support of the majority of the Senate.

What makes the Democrats’ conduct here even more notable is the substance of Cruz’s bill that they blocked with the filibuster. Cruz sought to impose sanctions on the Russian pipeline company Nord Stream 2, which is constructing the pipeline that will allow Moscow to sell large amounts of cheap natural gas to Germany and to Europe more broadly. There are few more pressing priorities for the Kremlin, if there are any, than construction of this pipeline. So by blocking Cruz’s bill, Democrats not only used a racist filibuster, but they did so in order to protect Vladimir Putin and a vital Russian company from sanctions.

Keep reading