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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is leading an effort in the Senate to peel back the filibuster after fiercely defending the 60-vote rule as a way to bring "balance" to the upper chamber.

Schumer in 2003 when the Senate had a very narrow GOP majority gave a spirited defense of Democrats using the filibuster on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. He made the case that since Bush didn't win in a landslide, the actions of the Senate should reflect the ideological middle of the country.

"The bottom line is this. We are defending the Constitution, we are saying there should be some balance," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a 2003 floor speech. "President Bush didnt win by a landslide. This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made they move to the middle."

He criticized the Republicans for trying to bend the rules to get the result they want. Schumer said the minority party's role in filibustering is nothing new, but "whats new is the view on the other side that if they dont get their whole way they want to change the rules."

CHUCK SCHUMER ON THE FILIBUSTER IN 2017: IF YOU CAN'T GET 60 VOTES, 'YOU SHOULDN'T CHANGE THE RULES'

His comments came as Senate Republicans were frustrated with Democrats for filibustering Bush's judicial nominees.

"What my colleagues have done is taken the result they want and then come up with an argument that all of a sudden filibusters are bad," Schumer said.

It's the latest example of Schumer's defense of the filibuster when Democrats were in the minority and wanted to stall the GOP agenda and judicial appointments.

Schumer fought hard against Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's decision to roll back the filibuster to approve President Trump's Supreme Court nominees, saying at the time if a "nominee doesn't get 60 votes, you shouldn't change the rules- you should change the nominee," Schumer told NBC's Chuck Todd at the time.

Story continues

SCHUMER TARGETS FILIBUSTER REFORM TO PASS VOTING RIGHTS LEGISLATION

Also in 2017, Schumer took to the Senate floor to say there should be a "firewall" around the legislative filibuster.

"Let us go no further down this road," Schumer said. "I hope the Republican Leader and I can, in the coming months, find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."

Now, however, Schumer is leading a charge in the Senate to take a vote on rolling back the legislative filibuster by Jan. 17 the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. Schumer wants a carve out to the filibuster to pass voting rights reforms by a simple majority that would set national standards for running elections.

Republicans are squarely against changing the rules for voting reforms they view as radical and a federal overreach.

MCCONNELL SLAMS SENATE DEMOCRATS FOR INVOKING JAN 6 TO PUSH FILIBUSTER CHANGES: 'SURREAL'

"The so-called voting rights acts they are pushing are a liberal Democrat federal takeover of our election systems which constitutionally reside with the states," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Twitter Thursday.

Schumer's office pointed to an interview he gave Monday with MSNBC's Joy Reid to explain his evolving opinion on the filibuster.

"Even a paragon who believed in the Senate rules, Robert C. Byrd, changed the rules nine times and he said, and I think I have his quote pretty accurately here, When circumstances change, the rules have to change,'" Schumer told the ReidOut.

"Well, let me tell you something: circumstances have changed dramatically with Donald Trump, the Big Lie, the violence of January 6th and all the efforts to take away voting rights," Schumer continued, referring to Trump's repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election instead of President Biden.

And last year, Schumer said Democrats were justified in using the filibuster against Trump's agenda and argued what Republicans are doing now with stalling President Biden's agenda is different.

"The big difference is that we were always willing to negotiate in a bipartisan way," Schumer told reporters at a press conference in March 2021. "Mitch McConnell isnt. The bills he puts on the floor, even when he calls them bipartisan, arent."

Fox News' Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

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Flashback: Schumer slammed Republicans for attempting to change the rules on the filibuster in 2003 - Yahoo News

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Being our semi-regular weekly survey of whats goin down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin gets done and where everybody knows shes the brains behind Paw.

We begin in Florida, which is unfair to the other 49 states and all the territories that never can erase the long lead Florida has in crazoid political events, but here we are. At issue is the erratic public schedule of Governor Ron DeSantis, on whom Politico called a putt a little too early. First, DeSantis simply vanished for a couple of weeks at the end of the year. The governors office said he was taking time off to tend to his wife, who recently was diagnosed with breast cancer. OK, so we give him the benefit of the doubt there. That he withdrew from the public eye just as the Omicron surge was breaking over the state is his own tough luck, since he has made a political meal out of defying all reasonable public-health precautions dealing with the pandemic, even the ones dedicated to handling the most recent variant. This week, after emerging from whatever seclusion he was in, DeSantis held a press conference in which he was clearly laboring to speak and breathe at the same time. This led to all kinds of speculation, as you can imagine, as Floridas tally of COVID cases left the stratosphere. In any case, the presidential timber talk has settled down for a while.

We move along to Wisconsin, where they are still futzing around with the 2020 presidential election and theres no end in sight. The investigation by former state supreme court judge Michael Gableman was supposed to be over by now, but, as we know from Benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI!, as well as from dozens of other examples, when American conservatives get their teeth into something like this, theres no prying them loose. Gablemans work has been so slipshod that even David Clarke, the maniac former Milwaukee sheriff, has pronounced himself disgusted by it, and State Senator Kathy Bernier, a Republican, called it a "charade." Gableman responded by telling Bernier she should resign. It should be noted that Clarkes major complaint is that Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin state assembly, is a very incompetent ratfcker. To be fair, Clarkes not entirely wrong. From CBS58:

Oh, OK. Lord, this state is a mess.

Andy ManisGetty Images

But, if they really want to look for election irregularities, they should look south toyes, Florida. Every presidential cycle, we all visit The Villages, a sprawling retiree community that dominates a certain slice of that state not far from Orlando. Sometimes, the folks entertain us with golf cart parades. But they are also enthusiastic, allegedly, about voter fraud. From News6 in Orlando:

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma. Blog Official Transient Friedman of the Plains is off on his annual gig in the Bahamas, to the bafflement of the venerable Jack, but he is closely monitoring developments back home, and sends us yet another tale of the long reach of the Big Lie. From Public Radio Tulsa:

This brother is a real prize. Again, from PRT:

Here at the shebeen, we periodically plead with our fellow citizens: Look, vote for conservatives if you must, but for the love of speed-skating Christ, stop voting for morons. Thank you.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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Multiple Registered Republicans in The Villages, Florida Accused of Voter Fraud - Esquire

Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan said on Sunday said the GOP has "no alternative" to supporting former president Donald Trump.

Meijer made the remarks on NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd when asked about why and how Trump has maintained a grip on the party despite being openly condemned by many Republicans following the January 6 insurrection.

"There was no alternative. There was no other path. And given how President Biden, when he was elected into office, you know, said he would be moderate and look for bipartisan solutions. But then after, and frankly, I blame the former president for this, after we lost the two senate seats in Georgia and the Senate flipped, it became an exercise in trying to be an LBJ or FDR style presidency and enact transformational change in the absence of any compelling mandate from the American people to do so," Meijer said.

"So that gave the rallying signal. That created a very steep divide, and at the end of the day, there's no other option right now in the Republican Party, and that's a sad testament," Meijer added.

Todd pushed back when Meijer blamed the divide on Biden, asking why it isn't up to Meijer himself, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, or Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to "kick their Trump habit."

"If you have one party plummeting into the depths and the other just uses that as an excuse to go further, to go more to an extreme, to go more away from any sort of governing consensus, and towards trying to enact whatever the will of the most extreme constituency they have is, that is a recipe for both parties to drive further away from anything that resembles serving the American people as a whole," Meijer responded.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, Republicans like McConnell and Sen. Lindsay Graham distanced themselves from Trump. On the Senate floor following the attack, Graham said, "Enough is enough."

Since then, Graham has changed his tune, saying that GOP leaders must have a relationship with the former president to be effective.

Trump has teased at a 2024 presidential run but has not committed yet. He plans on giving a speech on the anniversary of January 6 of this year from Mar-A-Lago.

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GOP rep says there's no other option right now to Republicans backing Trump - Business Insider

Dec15

Today, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), released the following statement regarding Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler pursuing major rulemakings with inadequate public comment periods: Im disappointed Chair Gensler continues to pursue significant, and often partisan, rulemakings without adequate time for public comment, said Republican Leader McHenry. This is part of an alarming trend of President Bidens financia...

Today, Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, led by Patrick McHenry (NC-10), opened an investigation into the unprecedented, attempted power grab by Democrats on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) Board of Directors, including Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra, acting head of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, and FDIC Board Member Martin Gruenberg. In a letter to Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine W...

Today, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), joined Yahoo Finance to discuss yesterdays hearing with CEOs of digital assets organizations, Web3, and the future of crypto regulation in the U.S. Watch the full interview here or by clicking the image above. Read excerpts from Republican Leader McHenrys interview: On burdensome regulations pushing digital asset innovation overseas: I don't think it's a question of tough or lax regulation. We curren...

The top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), issued the following statement regarding an attempt by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director, Rohit Chopra, and a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Director, Martin Gruenberg, to circumvent FDIC Chairwoman Jelena McWilliams: Rohit Chopra and the White House are attempting an unprecedented power grab at the FDIC," said Republican Leader McHenry. "Todays action was highly problema...

Link:
Financial Services Committee | Republicans

Republican leadership from the Kentucky House of Representatives released its proposed map for redrawing state legislative house districts on Thursday.

The plan from the GOP supermajority which has power to effectively control the process and outcome of the current redistricting cycle was presented by House Speaker David Osborne at a press conference.

Osborne said the focus of the presented map which covers the states 100 House legislative districts was on accounting for population shifts and staying within the legal bounds of the process, while also making districts more compact.

I think that, by any objective, if you look at the compactness of these districts, the continuity of these districts, clearly we did not move any legislator to another part of the state, he said. But, I think that also, by any objective, you will see a map that is much more reflective of Kentucky, and the needs of Kentucky and equal representation of Kentucky.

But Kentuckys House Minority Leader, Democrat Joni Jenkins, called the situation an attempt at fake transparency, saying the Republicans should not have released the plan on a state holiday. She also said the available information lacks the detailed information the public needs, since digital maps arent expected to be online until next week.

Citizens and candidates alike wont have that information online until late Tuesday, less than two days before the entire House votes, Jenkins said in a statement. That gives them precious little time to absorb the many changes and then offer input, something that goes against the very hallmark of the legislative process.

The proposed map would force four incumbents to face off against one another two pairs of Democrats from Louisville, and two pairs of rural Republicans. Osborne also said the new map would increase the number of majority-minority districts where most of the voters are members of a racial or ethnic minority from two to four.

The Republicans that would meet in a primary would be Reps. Norma Kirk-McCormick and Bobby McCool, who represent districts 93 and 97; and Reps. Lynn Bechler and Jim Gooch Jr. who represent districts 4 and 12.

The Democrats are Reps. Mary Lou Marzian and Josie Raymond, who represent districts 34 and 31; and Reps. McKenzie Cantrell and Lisa Willner, who represent districts 38 and 35.

The new proposed majority-minority districts would be 40 and 44 in Jefferson County, which are represented by Democratic Reps. Nima Kulkarni and Jenkins, respectively.

On Thursday, Osborne said that filing deadlines for candidates will likely move from Jan. 7 to Jan. 25.

Virginia Woodward, chair of the Louisville Jefferson County Democratic Party, said in a statement that the redistricting plan puts an unnecessary burden on the states biggest city:

Interesting, that the GOPs proposed redistricting plan for Jefferson County for the Kentucky House of Representatives provides maps and precinct lists that appear to be discriminatory at best, as they propose to pit already filed candidates in two other minority held districts against the incumbent Representative Pamela Stevenson and four of the most outspoken women legislative leaders, Representatives Mary Lou Marzian, Lisa Willner, McKenzie Cantrell and Josie Raymond against one another. Why? What are they afraid of? The Louisville Jefferson County Democratic Party (LJCDP) is appalled by this raw abuse of power and calls up the Kentucky State Legislation to pass a bipartisan proposal to repair the damage of the proposed GOP redistricting plan.

When the Kentucky General Assembly convenes for its 2022 session on Tuesday, Jan. 4, its likely that redistricting is one of the first topics addressed.

Redistricting takes place every 10 years, following the U.S. census. The law requires that districts must have close to equal populations and can not be drawn on a discriminatory basis. While the prospective map released on Thursday covered the House of Representatives, the state Senate has yet to release a plan for its 38 districts.

Osborne also said that the Kentucky Senate is working on the U.S. Congressional maps.

There was talk circulating a few months ago that the GOP was working to break up Louisville into multiple U.S. Congressional districts, instead of the city being surrounded by the clean circle that currently is the 3rd District, but Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders have been wary of the idea, warning it might lead to court battles and be a burden on area business. When Congressman John Yarmuth, who currently represents the 3rd District, landed at the Muhammed Ali International Airport the day after his retirement announcement in October, he told a press core that he thinks that the district will stay in tact.

Ive heard from my Republican colleagues in the House, all of whom I have a good relationships with, and they have been very honest with me, that they decided not to do that that the numbers are such that the 3rd District has to pick up a few voters, maybe four precincts or something, but that they are not going to make any other changes to the district, and thats kind of been verified by the leadership in the Kentucky General Assembly as well they said theyre not going to split Louisville up, Yarmuth said.

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Kentucky Republicans Reveal Their House Redistricting Map That Could Change Louisville Politics - Louisville Eccentric Observer