Boy, it would sure be nice if we could put politics behind us and focus on Christmas. Unfortunately, we can’t. There is still one more important election in the 2020 election cycle—the runoffs for two Senate seats in Georgia. If the Democrats win both seats, they will control the leadership positions in the next Senate. (There would be a 50-50 tie between the two parties. Vice President Kamala Harris, as President of the Senate, would break any tie votes). Here’s why you should do what you can (donate money, mostly) to help the GOP candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, win those races.
First of all, it’s important to acknowledge that some of the arguments used to whip up support for Perdue and Loeffler are probably exaggerated. We’ve heard warnings that a Democrat-led Senate would pack the Supreme Court with progressive Justices, admit Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia to the Union as new (and undoubtedly Democrat) states, defund police forces, and massively reorganize the federal government and American society.
All of that stuff is NOT likely to happen. The Senate would have to pass legislation to do those things. And, in the Senate, you can still filibuster legislation. You can’t stop judicial nominations with the filibuster anymore. But you can stop new laws. When a Senator filibusters a bill, it takes 60 votes to break the filibuster. No matter what happens in Georgia, the GOP will have 50 Senators in the next Senate.
The Senate could get rid of the filibuster for legislation by changing its rules. All that takes is a majority vote—and, with 50 Democrat Senators and Vice President Harris casting a tie-breaking vote, they would have enough votes to end the filibuster for legislation.
Enter Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia. Manchin has gone on a barnstorming tour of the TV networks and newspapers, pledging to NOT vote to end the legislative filibuster. He has bent over backward to place himself on record that he, personally, will prevent his party from doing away with it. 50 GOP Senators plus Manchin equals 51. (“Allahpundit,” at the conservative “Hot Air” website, reported that Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, another Democrat, has also pledged to keep the filibuster for legislation.) No one thinks that ANY of the GOP Senators would vote to end the filibuster for legislation. That filibuster is the primary weapon a political party has in the Senate, IF it’s in the minority. A GOP Senator would basically be voting to throw power away if he/she voted to end that filibuster.
It’s hard to believe that Manchin would publicly lie about this. It would be a stupid thing to do. His state, West Virginia, is one of the most conservative states in the Union. Why would Manchin go on a publicity tour pledging NOT to end the legislative filibuster—and then turn around and vote to end it? If he was going to vote to end the filibuster, he’d have just kept quiet about it. If he votes to end the filibuster now, West Virginians (and rational adults) would conclude that he’s a liar. It makes sense that Manchin means what he says. He really won’t vote to end the legislative filibuster. By making this promise, he undoubtedly wants to make people comfortable with voting for the two Democrat candidates for the Georgia Senate seats. Then, with the Democrats in the majority in the Senate, Manchin could be a committee chair.
So, if the legislative filibuster will allow the GOP to prevent an Armageddon of progressive legislation under a Biden-Harris administration, then why are those two GOP Senate seats in Georgia such a big deal? Here is why.
The party that holds the majority in the Senate gets to organize the Senate. They get to decide who the committee chairs are. Senate committee chairs have almost absolute power. They decide which legislation gets considered by their committee, and which nominations get hearings before it. More to the point, by refusing to consider a bill or give a nominee a hearing, a Senate committee chair can kill a bill or stop a nomination in its tracks. (No wonder Joe Manchin would want to be a committee chair). Here are two examples of that.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Massachusetts Governor William Weld to be the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Republican Senator Jesse Helms was chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Helms was hated by the liberal mainstream media, and they routinely heaped abuse on him. Helms refused to hold a hearing on Weld’s nomination. The Democrats and MSM howled in protest. “A bipartisan majority of Senators signed letters demanding that Helms advance the nomination,” says Wikipedia in its article on Weld. Helms refused to budge, though, and Weld withdrew his nomination. Helms’ holding firm had the effect of “effectively blocking” the nomination, says Wikipedia.
Fast forward to 2016. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died that February, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him. The GOP controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee, though, and refused to take up Garland’s nomination. That left Scalia’s seat vacant through the 2016 presidential elections. Trump won, and nominated Neil Gorsuch, whom the GOP confirmed to the Supreme Court.
THAT is why the Georgia Senate seats matter. A Senate in GOP hands can stop bad laws and bad nominees. It can hold hearings that command public attention and develop evidence that can go into the public record. I, for one, want to hear Tony Bobulinski testify about Hunter Biden’s business activities. I want hearings on all the election shenanigans we’ve seen. A Democrat-led Senate will not hold those hearings. When the GOP had the majority in the House of Representatives, its investigations helped bring many Democrat misdeeds—Fast and Furious, the Hillary Clinton e-mail server—into the public light. Congressional hearings make it harder, even impossible, for the progressive MSM to ignore scandals it would prefer to ignore.
The Biden Administration and MSM won’t be able to ignore the GOP if it can stop legislation, keep nominees from taking office or conduct investigations. Imagine how much harder the confirmation hearings for Biden Administration officials will be if the GOP controls those hearings. Biden Cabinet nominees would find it a LOT harder to dodge hard questions about what they knew about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, or the Steele dossier. Team Biden will think twice about nominating someone controversial, if they might fail. As we’ve seen, a Senate committee chair can stop a nomination in its tracks. (There are procedures where nominations can make it to the Senate floor without a committee vote, but they are time-consuming, messy, and would allow the GOP to air lots of dirty laundry about the nominee).
A GOP-led Senate will also make it much easier for the GOP to get its message out to the American people. The MSM will have to cover the GOP Senate if it has real power. And, there are plenty of rock stars in the GOP Senate. Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Joni Ernst are all powerful TV presences. They can voice a compelling, articulate GOP message. Who will the Democrats counter with? Joe Biden? Kamala Harris? Nancy Pelosi? Chuck Schumer? The GOP has Senators who can smack all of them around. I can’t wait to see that.
THAT is why you should do whatever you can to help David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win in January. To donate, go to winred.com.