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I Think That Living Here Is Gonna Be Bad For My Lungs | Home | Drinking Liberally, Filibuster Edition

Mr. President, I Suggest The Absence of a Quorum

Via Kevin Drum, some brilliant folks at the National Review think they have stymied the Democrats' plan to force Republicans to filibuster for real, controlling the Senate floor overnight and giving speeches in support of the war in Iraq. If all the Republicans boycott the Senate Chamber, there will be only 50 Democrats, which is insufficient to form a quorum. So Republican Senator X takes the floor to speak in favor of the war in Iraq, says, "I suggest the absence of a quorum", then leaves the chamber as the clerk calls the role.

But, it doesn't work that way, once you suggest the absence of the quorum, if it's a "real" quorum call, and not just the Senate's usual way of killing time, you can't leave the Seante floor. And even if you could some group of Senators would have thought of this before the Young Turks at the National Review. So the Senate has procedures to stop these shenanigans; during a quorum call, the sergeant-at-arms may physically arrest Senators and drag them to the Senate floor. If you don't believe me, it happened; just ask Bob Packwood (R-OR).

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Last updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 11:37 16 July 2007