Patrick Leahy Quotes

The Senator left the party caucus in protest:

The early human idea that human rulers must somehow divine and/or designated and supported by the deity was present over many cultures and geographies.

Lott and other Republicans who objected to Democratic Filibusters of a few judges. Later in the Obama administration he and Republicans had no problem when the Republican Senate minority filibustered just about everything—nominations, laws, budgets, treaties. They had more filibusters in that Congress than there had been in all of Senate history. It is always an issue of whose ox is gored with rampant hypocrisy on both sides in dealing with the filibuster concept. However, no majority in recent years has tried to change the filibuster, though the majority always complains about it.

Here we have an example of a government that tried to go into the Religion business. They wanted Christian religion but not the Catholic Church which at the time was the only Christian church. Many of the most extreme French revolutionists had a problem with religion. They were personally believers and recognized that most French people were. But the organized Roman Catholic Church was a major ally and supporter of the hated monarchy, and at the time was extremely corrupt at the expense of the people. The nobility were also the highest officials of the church in France. One solution they tried was to have the “people’s government” establish days and methods of worship, an effort that in retrospect appears ludicrous to us today.

Despite having passed the House and a majority of the Senate favoring McCain’s bill, a filibuster was led by a few holdouts from his own party. Patiently, McCain assembled sufficient Senate support to break the filibuster.

The senator had broken with his own party on the issue of slavery in the territories.

Note his choice of the word “control”. Some politicians believe that the purpose of most legislation is to enhance the control; that the government maintains over its citizens. However the United States Constitution was written and ratified so that the citizens could control the politicians. Neither group has prevailed totally.

The Congress at that time was mired down in hyperpartisanship and accomplished very little.

The senator sees examples of the filibuster in ancient Rome.

This is an important political quotation because it illustrates one of the major reasons that Congress was so gridlocked at the time and passed hardly any legislation at all. Farenthold was a relatively new Congressman supported by the Tea Party extreme conservatives. He had no Congressional legislative experience and viewed the House / Senate Conference Committee process more like a Middle East rug bazaar than a serious democratic process of constructive legislation. The position that he wants to take to the Conference Committee which is “livable” to him is not only unlivable to the majority of the Senate, but unlivable for a large part of his own House of Representatives, His position is so extreme that most Senators and many House members on the Conference Committee do not even bother to attempt to negotiate from there. Experienced Congressional legislators realize that negotiation can only take place between realistic options. Otherwise no legislation gets passed which was at that time, OK with most of the Tea Party supporters.

They were discussing the Civil Right Bill of 1964 which they all wanted to pass. See {605438} . However, they faced a filibuster from the Southern Senators who had always before used this tactic and blocked Civil Rights legislation. However, the President here committed himself to the one way to take most of the power out of the filibuster. Accept a shutdown of the Senate, give up the rest of the President’s legislative program but the filibuster blocks all legislation that the Southerners wanted like cotton and tobacco subsidies.

Bartolomeo Fiadóni -- Tolomeo da Lucca -- Bartholomew of Lucca