Elizabeth Warren Gets Put in Time Out in Senate

[NightTrain]

During the AG Sessions deliberations, Warren kept verbally attacking a sitting Senator, namely one Jeff Sessions.

McConnell warned her it was against the rules, but she proceeded anyway. That led to a ban and she is no longer allowed to speak at the Sessions hearings.

I like this spine that McConnell has grown lately. A lot.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/07/warren-barred-from-speaking-on-senate-floor-for-rest-sessions-debate.html

[Abbey Marie]

They should make her sit in a teepee in the corner.

[Kathianne]

This summed it up nicely:

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/02/08/elizabeth-warren-gets-mitchslapped/


...

McConnell is a veteran of exactly how the chamber operates, one could wonder how he was able to conjure up the rule and pounce on it so quickly. Well, this may have something to do with it (http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/02/07/heres-how-republicans-can-confirm-supreme-court-nominees-without-the-nuclear-option/).


Sean Davis over at the Federalist has been brushing up on his reading of Rule XIX, and wrote an article that mapped out how the rule could be invoked to close down debate on a filibuster and move to a floor vote on Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, without having to blow up the filibuster under the Reid Rule. In short, sub-section 1(a) of Rule XIX states:



1. (a) When a Senator desires to speak, he shall rise and address the Presiding Officer, and shall not proceed until he is recognized, and the Presiding Officer shall recognize the Senator who shall first address him. No Senator shall interrupt another Senator in debate without his consent, and to obtain such consent he shall first address the Presiding Officer, and no Senator shall speak more than twice upon any one question in debate on the same legislative day without leave of the Senate, which shall be determined without debate.

No Senator can speak more than twice on any legislative day on the same subject. Them’s the rules. So Leader McConnell could easily deem the floor debate on Gorsuch one legislative day, provided the Senate is not gaveled into recess, meaning he turns the debate into a true filibuster…ish. Democrats would have the floor to talk it out, but once each Senator runs out of gas and tag teams out, they can only sub back in one more time. McConnell could probably have them all run out of gas within a 48 hour period. After they’ve all had two reps on the floor, whether it be at Noon or 2am, they’re done. Once they’re done, and there’s no one left legally, under Rule XIX, to take the floor in order to continue the debate, McConnell deems the debate over by rule and calls for the final confirmation vote. There is no 60 vote cloture vote necessary. Once the two-speech rule has been applied to all who wish to speak, debate is done. Over. McConnell then schedules a final floor vote, and Neil Gorsuch is your next associate justice on the Supreme Court with a final vote, I’m predicting, around 58 or better. Regardless of how it turns out, it seems to me that Senator McConnell and his staff must have been reviewing Rule XIX already, and may have led to how they responded so fast.


Senator Warren, I realize you’ve been a Senator for a few years now, but let me officially welcome you to the new and improved United States Senate, where rules are now apparently enforced. You’ve just been Mitchslapped.

[NightTrain]

Fauxcahontas got MitchSlapped.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

They should make her sit in a teepee in the corner.

She should be held even more accountable. Maybe something like a 20,000 dollar fine, as it is her job to know the rules and not act the liberal piece of intolerant, lying, worthless sewage that she is.
These filthy creatures that have enjoyed their swamp dictatorship under the scum obama should be set in place and told to stop their insanity and god-like presumption of their infinite wisdom, IMHO.-Tyr

[Gunny]

She should be held even more accountable. Maybe something like a 20,000 dollar fine, as it is her job to know the rules and not act the liberal piece of intolerant, lying, worthless sewage that she is.
These filthy creatures that have enjoyed their swamp dictatorship under the scum obama should be set in place and told to stop their insanity and god-like presumption of their infinite wisdom, IMHO.-Tyr

Now see, this is MY kind of sh*t. Engage the enemy and kick his (her) a$$ with the rules.

I don't think McConnell "grew a spine". It was there. He just didn't waste his ammo when it wouldn't have mattered. I can relate to that too.

[Elessar]

They should make her sit in a teepee in the corner.

A playpen with a binkie would be more appropriate.

[jimnyc]

I don't understand why many Dems are upset about this, and her being silenced. It makes 100% complete sense to me. It's the senate rules, and I see no reason why it should be ignored. This should be applied by either side if senators start bashing one another instead of issues.

-----

CONDUCT UNBECOMING

Rule 19 states that senators may not “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.”

It states that when, in the opinion of the presiding officer, a senator violates that decorum, the presiding officer “shall call him to order and … he shall take his seat.”

[NightTrain]

Interesting history regarding Senate Rule XIX :


RAUCOUS HISTORY

In the Senate, where men are referred to as “gentleman” and women are called “gentle lady,” the rule stems from a notorious 1902 incident in which two South Carolina lawmakers got into a fistfight on the Senate floor. According to the Senate historian’s office, Sen. John McLaurin raced into the Senate chamber and said fellow Democrat Ben Tillman was guilty of “a willful, malicious, and deliberate lie.”

Tillman — a fiery populist who had earned the nickname “Pitchfork Ben” for threatening to bring a pitchfork to prod then-President Grover Cleveland to act on the economy — spun around and punched McLaurin squarely in the jaw. The Senate “exploded in pandemonium as members struggled to separate both members.” The fracas ended, “but not without stinging bruises both to bystanders and to the Senate’s sense of decorum,” according to an account on the historian’s office website.

The Senate censured both men and added to its rules the provision that survives today as part of Rule 19.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/1902-fistfight-gave-rise-to-arcane-rule-that-silenced-warren/

Too bad C-SPAN wasn't around at the time... I'd really like to see that Senate brawl.

[aboutime]

Anyone see the resemblance? http://icansayit.com/images/troll.jpghttp://icansayit.com/images/warren1.jpg