beginning of the end of the senate because right now, the filibuster only deals with executive branch and judicial branch nominees. doesn t deal with legislation. but what are you saying? almost nothing in his statement dealt with nominations. he started talking about all the things he wanted to get through and it suggested to me this is the beginning of is he going to do that, expand and eliminate the filibuster on everything? who knows. there are important facts here we re ignorinignoring. the reason why today happened is the republican minority in the senate, of all of the filibusters in the history of the senate, almost half of them have happened under this republican minority, over the past five years since the president has come into office. that s an abuse of power. i think that it s unfortunate it came to this. nobody wanted this to happen. i m a firm believer in the power of the senate as the cooling saucer and the importance of the filibuster in ensuring we re mak
we re just a few hours away from d-day, if you will, on this issue. what are your thoughts moving forward? you think this is going to happen right now? does that excite you, these rule changes? here is the republican deal. my colleagues say the senate is supposed to be a cooling saucer referring to the conversation between jefferson and washington. it hasn t been a cooling saucer, it s been a deep freeze. nominations on the executive branch have been an escalating problem. they were zero from the time i was born until the time i first came to washington, d.c. when ford was president. there have been 16 just under the obama administration. that s just the final filibuster, if you will. that s preceded by all kinds of obstruction. denying quorum in committees, submitting 1,000 questions to mccarthy. every possible thing from the president putting his team in place and getting up and down votes. it has to end. i will ask you this, though, because republicans have said if
gave some people hope that that would not be the case anymore. and he s shaken things up. and he has gotten things done. but here s a case where the nature, the ingrained nature of this system here in washington, which was basically designed to defeat change, once again came into place. washington is now a sort of conservative force in american life. conservative with a small c. not a leading force in american life. the senate s been called a cooling saucer. you had your tea in the old days, drink the tea, put it in the saucer and let it cool. this time was it good to let it cool? by turning it over to biden, letting him set up a commission, waiting two months to get anything done, if they had struck when the iron was hot to keep this metaphor going, right after the tragedy, wouldn t they have at least have gotten extended background checks? that s certainly an argument that critics are making of how the administration and how majority leader harry reid has happened this. there s
misrepresentation. you are a politician needing to make a political point. that s a cheap political point and you know it. this is justice. this has nothing to do with being mayor. he s going to fight for the people of new jersey is what we re saying. just like that. western civilization is in trouble. come on. come on. really. seriously. really. come on. what we didn t show you there was al capone s vault, 1986, a great day for the country. great television. great television. that was one of the great moments. this is why james madison created a senate, so we could have this? this is the cooling saucer. you can see why senator rivera did you just call him senator rivera? would-be senator rivera said on his radio show when he announced that he talked seriously to politicians in new jersey about running, he said, buckle your seat belt. wow. that will make things better. did you get tickets to that new jersey chamber of commerce dinner next year?
president for various reasons, and what he s basically said is, okay, let s let the senate do its thing and we ll consider it. they ve become the senate in the usual case of they are the cooling saucer for legislation. everything is going to go to them as a final stage. i think that s tactically smart. in terms of long-term implications for the republican party, everybody s been saying after the election, maybe they can get it together, circle the wagons, come up with a new position, new policies. this gives them more time to work on this. i don t have any ideas for them on that, i got to tell you. good luck. luke, how much i mean, we played that sound from rush limbaugh, rush limbaugh is the mayor of planet crazy, but at the same time, he does speak for you know this, house caucus, there are people, yesterday mo brooks plans to oppose this, he has a serious problem on his hands. to what degree are they going to be placated or feel they need to