Jeff Merkley

“The Progressive Professor” Favorites In The US Senate, 113th Congress!

Ronald 5 Comments

With the new Senate coming in on January 3 for the 113th Congress, this author and blogger has decided to indicate who his “favorite” members, those he has real respect and admiration for, and expects great things from for the next two years. The following list is not ranked, but simply a list of the top ten by state alphabetically! At the end, though, the author will list the two Senators he most admires, who he sees as tied for BEST! So here goes!

Tom Harkin of Iowa
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Al Franken of Minnesota
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Jeff Merkley of Oregon
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Bernie Sanders of Vermont
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin

Seven of the above are incumbents, while Warren, Kaine and Baldwin are newcomers to the US Senate. And seven are men, while three are women.

And my favorite Senators of this group would have to be a tie between:

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, true heroes in my mind!

Notice that FIVE of these Senators come from the Midwest (both from Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio).

Three come from New England–Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.

One comes from Virginia and one comes from Oregon.

And both favorites are New England neighbors.

This is the true progressive in action, with the Midwest, the area of progressivism in the past century, and New England as the areas of dominance, but with Oregon and Virginia adding admirable members to this select group!

The author invites commentary on this entry!

The Abuse Of The Filibuster By The Senate Minority: Time For Reform!

Ronald Leave a comment

As the political year ends, the record shows that the use of the filibuster tactic by the Republican minority in the US Senate has reached an all time high.

It used to be that the filibuster was utilized by Southern Democrats opposed to the passage of civil rights legislation.

Now it is used as a weapon to stop ALL action in the Senate, with simply the threat of a filibuster preventing progress on legislation, or presidential nominees for the federal courts and other offices.

The number of motions for cloture has doubled in the past few years, and has nearly quadrupled since the 1970s and 1980s, and was used in the single digits until the 1970s.

It used to be that mounting a filibuster meant a group of Senators taking turns in speaking on the floor for hours and hours, while now just the threat stops action.

Is this proper use of the filibuster, just to say a group will mount a filibuster, and all action is paralyzed as a result?

Of course, the answer is no, so the Democratic majority and Senate President and Vice President Joe Biden will have one chance to change the rules of the Senate, on opening day of the 112th Senate on January 5, 2011.

The move to reform the filibuster is being led by junior Democrats, including Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Mark Warner of Virginia. But senior Democrats, including Tom Harkin of Iowa and Carl Levin of Michigan also back the idea of reforms.

The problem is to realize that the Democrats could be in the minority in the Senate in 2013, and the desire to retain influence if they are the minority, so tinkering with the Senate rules on the filibuster, as well as other tactics, such as the ability of one Senator to use the “hold” tactic on action, must be carefully considered, so as not to reverberate on the Democrats in the future times when, inevitably, they will NOT be the majority!