Since becoming Senate Majority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer has became an extremist and has seemingly lost touch with other Senators, including himself. Then just Senator Schumer said in 2003:
"The bottom line is this. We are defending the Constitution, we are saying there should be some balance," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a 2003 floor speech. "President Bush didn’t win by a landslide. This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made they move to the middle."
The Senate is divided 50-50 Republican-Democrat right now. The Senate cannot be any closer and yet Schumer wants to end the filibuster. Also, in George W. Bush’s first term Democrats began filibustering judges, something that had never been done before. They even filibustered judges for racist reasons. By comparison President Biden is on pace for the second fewest filibusters in the last twelve years.
Unsuccessful cloture votes
— Bill Scher (@billscher) January 7, 2022
09/10: 28
11/12: 32
13/14: 31
15/16: 63
17/18: 11
19/20: 28
21/22 (to date): 8https://t.co/3oYB4Ds8NU
Even a few Senators in his own party don’t support Schumer’s filibuster follies:
Since mid-2021, Manchin and Sinema have both gone on record on multiple occasions insisting they will not change the filibuster. We're now in January of 2022 and the entire Democrat playbook in Washington amounts to "let's see if they've changed their mind yet."
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 10, 2022
The last time Democrats changed the filibuster rules, they almost immediately regretted it. Here is current Senate Rules Chair Amy Klobuchar in 2013:
SEN. KLOBUCHAR, after voting for the nuclear option in 2013 said, Democrats shouldn't have gotten rid of the filibuster:
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) January 10, 2022
“I think we should have the filibuster in place. You have to have a consensus. I would’ve liked to see 60 votes. I don’t think we should’ve made that change." pic.twitter.com/2XfpStK4sQ
One of the reasons for Schumer’s push to end the filibuster is his own preservation. He is worried about a New York Senate primary by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. History and President Biden's many failures lead to pundits believing Republicans have a good take Senate control back in 2022. Schumer stated desire to break the filibuster for partisan "voting rights reform" is further belied by the fact there is bipartisan support for other election reforms such as to the Electoral Count Act that would not require the filibuster to be broken.
Senate Majority Leader Schumer should listen to Senator Schumer. His failure to do so may help him lose the Majority Leader title. RNLA will have a webinar Friday on The Future of the Filibuster, the Electoral Count Act, and the Senate.