Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Kerry on the filibuster

Not everyone liked Kerry, or thought he was the best presidential candidate. But boy, he knows how to write a speech. Check out his thoughts on the filibuster.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It shows great character that he resisted the temptation to say "I told you so."

Tyrrany! Finally, Democrats are using the right word for what the Republicans and the religious right are doing!  

// posted by Raised By Republicans

USWest said...

Back after the elections, I commented on this blog that America needed to start having a serious dialogue about the state of our democratic system. I've since heard others more influential than I saying the same thing. I recently listened to Bill Moyers on www.cspan.org defending his work. It was truly inspiring to hear someone of integrity eloquently defend not just his work, but our American ideals as well. And this speech by Kerry is another exemplary example of the type of things that we need to be talking about. He elevated the discussion by seeing the bigger issue behind the politics, relying on American statesmen, and referencing historical knowledge. This is what we need more of. We all need to slow down, shut off the noise, and start being more thoughtful about where we are headed. The Crossfire mentality to debate is, in the words of Jon Stewart, "Hurting America". Makes me proud that I voted for Kerry. He's to far above the petty minds that say "I told you so."

Anonymous said...

This morning, Carl Levin gave a great speech where he quoted Republican Senator Vandenberg at length. You can find the full text here . Senator Vandenberg, a Republican leader in the Senate, addressed the Senate in 1949 prior to the Senate’s rejection  of Vice President Barkley’s (D) effort to change the cloture rule by a ruling of the chair, exactly what is on the table now.

Vandenberg said, in part:
“...[T]he rules of the Senate as they exist at any given time and as they are clinched by precedents should not be changed substantively by the interpretive action of the Senate’s Presiding Officer, even with the transient sanction of an equally transient Senate majority. The rules can be safely changed only by the direct and conscious action of the Senate itself, acting in the fashion prescribed by the rules. Otherwise, no rule in the Senate is worth the paper it is written on, and this so-called ‘greatest deliberative body in the world’ is at the mercy of every change in parliamentary authority.”

Marvellous.
 

// posted by LTG