“The Real Fake Filibuster” | protein wisdom: "Is it a filibuster or not? Apparently this depends on who is speaking. In 2010, socialist senator Bernie Sanders performed precisely the same trick that Ted Cruz has over the past twenty-plus hours: He asked for permission to make a long speech that doesn’t actually “delay or block” a piece of legislation. Back then, though, Sanders was a filibustering hero. Buzzfeed reported rather breathlessly that:
Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is being a badass today and doing a real filibuster of the Obama tax cuts to counteract the bullshit fake filibusters everyone else has been trying to pull recently.
Actually, “badass” Sanders was doing a fake filibuster. This, of course, is fine. But we should expect some consistency. That is to say that if Sanders’s filibuster was “real,” then so is Cruz’s; if it was a “bullshit fake” filibuster, then so is Cruz’s. Buzzfeed, however, has other ideas today:
Sen. Ted Cruz has now held the Senate floor for 19 hours in a faux filibuster. pic.twitter.com/GgspEe4nTs"
Posts
