Our take on Mitch McConnell's "self-filibuster"

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AFJ released this statement on a spectacle that was absurd even by U.S. Senate standards:


AFJ: McCONNELL “SELF-FILIBUSTER” ILLUSTRATES HOW GOPTURNS IT INTO “WEAPON OF MASS OBSTRUCTION”
WASHINGTON,D.C., Dec. 7: The spectacle of the Minority Leader of the United States Senatefilibustering his own bill perfectly illustrates the extent to which thefilibuster has been abused for purely partisan purposes, according to the Alliancefor Justice.
Yesterday,Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) introduced a bill to allow the President to raisethe federal debt ceiling on his own authority. The idea was to show that Democrats didn’t have the votes to pass such ameasure.  But when it turned out theDemocrats did have the votes, McConnell was in a bind.  His only way out: filibuster his own bill.
“If we didn’tknow better we’d think Sen. McConnell was moonlighting as a writer for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report,” said Nan Aron, President of the Alliance forJustice.  “But Sen. McConnell’s theater-of-the-absurdactually illustrates an extremely serious problem: the paralysis in the Senatecaused by Republican abuse of the filibuster.
“Thefilibuster was intended to be used in extreme circumstances, where fundamentalprinciples were at stake,” said Aron.  “ButSenate Republicans have turned it into a weapon of mass obstruction to bringthe business of the Senate to a halt. 
“Nowhere is this more apparent thanin our federal courts.   Aswe document in our recent report, Senate Republicans repeatedly have abusedthe filibuster to block votes on nominees for federal judgeships – including noncontroversialnominees with broad bipartisan support. That’s led to unconscionable delays and severe hardship for hundreds ofthousands of Americans, forced to wait months, sometimes years to fight fortheir rights in court.

“That’s why it’s time to ring downthe curtain on the theater of the absurd and enact serious reforms to Senaterules.”