Strong Opposition Quotes
In 1892 President Harrison and the Republicans were trying to win a second term and were embarrassed by a bloody strike and riot at the Homestead steel works. Frick, the Homestead General Manager, was visited by a Republican emissary suggesting that Frick recognize the union and reduce the public embarrassment.. The Republicans lost to Grover Cleveland and the Democrats.
The President was advised that if he maintained his policies he would be impeached:
Democratic Speaker of the Oklahoma House Jim Barker was so heavy-handed that his own party members combined to unseat him:
Yet he fought very hard to get the speakership and keep it. It was particularly frustrating for him however as he had the Tea Party wing of his party who just wanted to stop and reduce government and its spending and would not compromise on issues. So he could not even negotiate for his majority in the House as without the Tea Party, he did not have a majority.
In the early days of the Senate Filibuster, a senator could hold the floor (and halt all actions) as long as he could continue to speak or 3/5 of the Senate voted to end the filibuster. The filibuster imposed a physical burden on the Senator who chose to use it. Likewise, the other Senators had to be present in sufficient numbers to have a quorum, else the Filibusterer would be able to rest at he did not have to continue to speak if there was not a quorum. The Senate rules were changed to allow a Senator to “announce” a filibuster of a bill, and all action on that bill would stop but there was no burden on the filibustering senator or other senators who had to form the quorum. But in the 112th Congress, the Republicans resorted to more filibusters than there had been in the entire previous history of the Senate and Nelson wanted to return to the old requirement of holding the floor physically.
Responding to criticism that he was not consulting sufficiently with the Congress:
The survey was for the "The National Survey on Energy and Environment" (NSEE), an annual snapshot of US opinion put together by the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
