Mpls Star Trib prints lies from Norm Coleman staffer

The Minneapolis Star Tribune printed a letter from Tom Steward, Communications Director for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), defending Norm's flip flop on filibustering. Norm has received significant criticism for voting against timetables for getting the troops out of Iraq and to a lesser extent changing his principled stance against filibusters. Steward's response to the criticism is full of lies and misinformation.

COLEMAN'S CLOTURE VOTE

It has a solid context

A July 25 letter that criticized Sen. Norm Coleman for voting against cloture on a recent amendment to the Senate's defense bill failed to mention some key facts.

It is true that Sen. Coleman does not favor the filibuster as a routine practice. He first stated his opposition to the filibuster when Democrats used it regularly to block votes on numerous judicial nominations in 2003. Coleman also has generally supported cloture votes when used to bring up a measure for debate and improvement on the Senate floor.

Unfortunately, since Sen. Harry Reid took over as majority leader in January, he has exploited this little-understood Senate procedure, invoking cloture more than any other Senate leader in history. Reid has now filed cloture 46 times in the first seven months of this session of Congress, compared with just 16 at the same point in 2005 or 11 at the same point in 2003 when Republicans were in control of the Senate.

Most important, Reid's use of cloture votes for the most part has not been to end filibusters but to avoid a full debate by taking away the rights of the Republican minority to offer amendments -- the exact opposite of what this tool was designed for. In fact, Reid is using it so often that a cloture vote is often the only opportunity for senators to express their view on any given topic, as was the case with the recent amendment to immediately begin withdrawing our troops from Iraq, which Coleman opposed.

Sen. Coleman will continue to support cloture whenever he can, but he will not be afraid to stand up to Senate leaders when they are suppressing debate on the major issues facing our country.

TOM STEWARD, WASHINGTON;
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR,
OFFICE OF SEN. NORM COLEMAN
(Star Tribune)

Steward claims that Norm "does not favor the filibuster as a routine practice", but his actual statement back in 2005 was decidedly stronger. More a statement of principle than just an inclination.

“I came to the Senate to get things done. I have never supported a filibuster, no matter how controversial the issue."
(Norm Coleman's 12/21/2005 Press Release)

At the time Norm was unhappy that Democrats would block Bush's judicial nominees with filibusters. Now that Norm is in the minority, he's flip-flopped on filibusters. Back in 2005 he was trying to sound noble and principled, as if he was above the partisanship inherent in the modern filibuster. Now that the Republicans are using it as a tool for partisan hackery and gridlock, Norm is forced to spin his flip flop.

The spinning in the second paragraph ends and the lies begin in the third paragraph. The reason that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has invoked cloture 46 times is that the Republicans have filibustered bills, amendments and even non-binding resolutions on 46 occasions (I have no idea where Steward comes up with 46. I found 38 and I suspect he pulled that number out of his butt). 46 filibusters says more about the Republicans than it does about Reid trying to end their filibusters. The Republicans are doing everything they can to make sure that Congress accomplishes as little as possible. They know they can maintain 41 votes and block pretty much everything they want to. They hope to blame it all on the Democrats come 2008.

In the fourth paragraph, Steward swerves into Republican bizarro world.

I think it is important to straighten out how filibusters actually work since Steward's explanation is intentionally vague and inaccurate. In the past, a Senator(s) would decide to filibuster a proposal he/she/they didn't like and subject the proposal to endless debate until the motion was either withdrawn or a successful cloture motion passed. Currently, Senate Rule 22 ends the pain, the all-night political theater and the sleeplessness associated with filibusters. Now all that is needed is to threaten to filibuster and the authors must either withdraw the item or Senate Leadership pass a cloture motion -- the Senate will not proceed to other business until one or the other happens.

When cloture is invoked, the Senate votes on whether to 'end' the filibuster (which never literally happened) and proceed to a vote on the floor. Its all very neat and painless ... not like back in the olden times.

Okay, now back to Steward's swerve into Republican bizarro world. Invoking cloture does not end the possibility of amendments to bills or stifle debate. This is simply a lie. All it does is move the bill, amendment or non-binding resolution to the floor for debate and a vote. Typically, this is when Senators make speeches and offer amendments prior to voting. Republicans have been using Senate Rule 22 to end debate on issues they don't want to discuss such as anything related to the Iraq War. The threat of filibuster forces the cloture motion and the debate never happens.

Furthermore, Steward claims that "Reid is using it so often that a cloture vote is often the only opportunity for senators to express their view on any given topic" is demonstrably false. In my post about Norm Coleman supports filibuster for the 9th time, I have a chart (at the bottom of the post) of the 38 cloture votes I could find in 2007. In 14 of these cloture votes, everybody supported the motion and they passed -- these items were then debated and given up or down votes. Of the remaining 24, 22 are items sponsored by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. When the vote of cloture failed, the Democrats withdrew the item so that the Senate could continue with its business. Steward and Norm's complaint that the debate ended because of Senate Rule 22 which precludes the extended debates is specious ... a cloture motion, if it passes, moves the item to the floor for debate and voting ... Senators can then register where they stand on an issue.

What is really pissing off Norm and the rest of the Republican Senators is that they want to offer endless numbers of amendments to bog down the legislative process and Reid is preventing them from doing it. If they were to argue that Reid is hampering the Republicans ability to offer amendments, that's one thing. Instead they try and complain about it in a way that hides the true intentions (gridlock) and that blames Reid for everything. How disingenuous and how typical for Norm.