Page 109 - Quorum News Today

Joining me now is a political science professor at the university of miami. jennifer rubin, "washington post" opinion writer and msnbc political analyst and jason johnson, political editor of theroot.c theroot.com. i want to start with you dr. koger because you wrote an interesting article that got people buzzing on social media and what you wrote about was a potential sort of parliamentary procedure that democrats could use to shut down the senate, denying republicans a quorum if all 49 democra...

And my main point is that the senate should be a deliberative body that debates the main policy questions of our day and that senate democrats could stand up for themselves and break a quorum in an effort to get the republicans to vote on the major things we want them to vote on like family separation at the border. so what they could do is refuse to participate in votes and quorum calls. a quorum in the senate is a majority. so thats 51 senators so if the democrats force a roll call vote and do...

I dont think her willingness to fight over the supreme court is radical or extreme in the democratic caucus. i think thats their intention. but there is very little democrats can do. once she gets into congress and she is overwhelmingly likely to win the seat, she will be an influential avatar for a new generation. the energy is on the left. >> she uses delay which is a code you are hearing for some who would like to see democrats do something radical, which is keep proposing things. dont have a...

Person like that and thats excellent because thats exactly why the american people put president trump in this position tonight, they wanted someone who would be honoring the constitutional laws that way. >> tucker: so you are confident that with senator mccain out dealing with his illness, the president would get the at the full support of every republican in the senate and there would be enough republicans present for a quorum to get this through? >> obviously with such a narrow margin, you ha...

Abraham lincoln jumped out a second story window to avoid a vote on a bill. and senators walked out of congress for a spending bill fight. that prompted democrats to order the sergeant at arms to chase them down and arrest them. >> the yaes, 45, and nays 43. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will continue to call names of absentee senators. and the sergeant-at-arms will execute the order of the senate. >> that order with all those empty desks was to arrest gop senator bob packwood, carried to t...

Say that, how do you do that. on the judiciary committee, would you prevent the hearing taking place of this nominee? would you use boycotts? try to disrupt a quorum? filibuster? what are the tactics? >> im not going to explain all of the tactics and strategy with you now, but there are a lot of conversations going on. i dont want to give any illusions that they dont have power, the numbers, the last election we had, the 2016 election. we said this during the campaign, this could end up being on...

Although they didnt get him dragged in. that goes back to 1798 when there was a senate rule passed saying if people were staying off the senate floor to deny a quorum to people that wanted to do something they didnt like, sergeant-at-arms could send senate police out to actually arrest senators and drag them into the chamber. didnt happen often. but did there. >> thats fascinating. that goes to the idea of legitimacy and whether this should continue this way. the other thing people forget, we kn...

Constitutional process designed to protect this country for generations to come. and to have the senate majority leader, thats why when i hear this matter of raw power, hes going to insure the confirmation of whoever the president puts forward, every senator should bach at that. every senator should recognize that individually they have a constitutional obligation to advise and consent. >> not only that, fez, share lynn makes a key point, as well which is the difference between blocking and gett...

Principl principle. >> but in the language of politics, the democrats dont any power to block anybodys nomination or have a hearing. as i understand it, there may be wiggle room about needing a quorum for a vote in the senate judiciary committee, but there is no filibuster left. obama and democrats abolished the filibuster for lower court nominees and then when mitch mcconnell and his band of merry folks abolished it when they needed to get neil gorsuch through so -- and the democrats dont contr...

Going to insure the confirmation of whoever the president puts forward, every senator should bach at that. every senator should recognize that individually they have a constitutional obligation to advise and consent. >> not only that, fez, share lynn makes a key point, as well which is the difference between blocking and getting someone through. what mcconnell had to do with garland was basically having one conversation with chuck grassley and that was dont have a hearing. and he agreed. and bet...