The Hill reports, House passes voting rights package, setting up Senate filibuster showdown:

The House passed voting rights legislation on Thursday in a way that is intended to set up a battle in the Senate over that issue as well as the filibuster.

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The measure passed in a 220-203 party-line vote.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has vowed to put the measure to a vote in the coming days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in a bid to highlight state laws approved by GOP-dominated state governments that Democrats say will make it more difficult for their supporters — including minority voters — to vote.

“Nothing less is at stake than our democracy,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The manner in which the legislation was approved allows Schumer to bring it straight to the floor. But Democrats would need 60 votes — including 10 GOP votes — to get it to President Biden’s desk given the filibuster.

Two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — oppose making changes to the filibuster that would allow the voting rights measure to sidestep the procedural hurdle and be approved on a majority vote.

The Hill continues, Sinema scuttles hopes for filibuster reform:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) doubled down on her support for the 60-vote legislative filibuster Thursday, roughly an hour before President Biden meets with Democrats to push for changing the Senate rule in order to pass voting rights legislation.

C-Span Video Link: Senator Sinema Announces Opposition to Changing Filibuster Rules.

“I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said during a Senate floor speech.

She added that she has had “long-standing support” for the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance in the Senate.

“It is the view I continue to hold. It is the belief I have shared many times in public settings and in private settings,” Sinema said. “Eliminating the 60-vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy.”

As Sinema was speaking, several GOP senators were on the floor listening to her speech: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sens. John Thune (S.D.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), who spoke before Sinema, and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) were at their desks for Sinema’s speech.

This Vichy Democrat collaborator appeasing the enemies of democracy made the bullshit assertion that she supports the voting rights bills, but not more than she supports the Jim Crow relic Senate filibuster rule, or asking permission from the enemies of democracy who tried to overthrow American democracy on January 6, 2021. She does not support voting rights if she does not support doing what everyone knows is necessary to pass voting rights. Stop treating your constituents as if they are as ignorant and gullible as you are, Senator. They see right through your charade.

Sinema reiterated on Thursday that she supports the two voting rights bills and raised a red flag over the state-level changes to voting rules.

“These state laws have no place in a nation whose government is formed by free, fair and open elections,” Sinema said, while saying they were “symptoms” of bigger divisions with the American political system.

Threats to American Democracy are real,” she said. “I strongly support those efforts to contest these laws in court and to invest significant resources into these states to better organize and stop efforts to restrict access at the ballot box.”

Sinema has long called for a public debate over the Senate’s rules, adding on Thursday that while the “harried discussions about Senate rules are but a poor substitute” that the discussion was a “worthy goal.”

I share the disappointment of many that we’ve not found more support on the other side of the aisle for legislative responses to state-level voting restrictions. I wish that were not the case,” she said.

“Just as I wish there had been a more serious effort on the part of the Democratic Party leaders to sit down and genuinely discuss how to reforge common ground on these issues,” Sinema added.

* * *

Sinema’s speech is the latest sign that Democrats’ bid to change the legislative filibuster is poised to fall short, scuttling their hope of passing voting rights legislation in the face of GOP opposition. But the timing offers a particularly hard gut-punch to Democrats and a reality check at the possibility that Biden is able to unite all 50 Democrats behind changing the filibuster.

Sinema’s speech comes roughly an hour before Biden is scheduled to arrive on Capitol Hill to urge Democrats to pass voting rights legislation even if they have to change the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most bills.

* * *

Asked about Sinema’s speech on Thursday, fellow Vichy Democrat Manchin told reporters that it was an “excellent speech.”

“I think it’s the points that I’ve been making for an awful long time and she has too,” he said.

As President Biden said in his speech in Atlanta on Tuesday:

And the question is: Where will the institution of the United States Senate stand? Every senator — Democrat, Republican, and independent — will have to declare where they stand, not just for the moment, but for the ages.

Will you stand against voter suppression? Yes or no? That’s the question they’ll answer. Will you stand against election subversion? Yes or no? Will you stand for democracy? Yes or no?

And here’s one thing every senator and every American should remember: History has never been kind to those who have sided with voter suppression over voters’ rights. And it will be even less kind for those who side with election subversion.

So, I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered?

At consequential moments in history, they present a choice: Do you want to be the si- — on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?

This is the moment to decide to defend our elections, to defend our democracy. (Applause.)

Sen. Kyrstem Sinema stands on the side of the seditious insurrectionists who tried to overthrow American democracy on January 6, 2021, and who are continuing a slow-motion insurrection through state legislatures with Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws, and more extreme election subversion laws. She has betrayed the electorate that elected her to office, under false pretenses. This is not whom voters thought they were electing in 2018. We would have gotten this same result with Martha McSally.

Last September I called upon Senator Kysten Sinema to resign, to allow a real Democrat to be appointed to her seat. Today I renew this call with even greater vigor. Enough is enough!  Kyrsten Sinema Is Obstructing The Democratic Agenda – Resign:

A Freshman back bencher senator with no political capital who engages in performance politics does not get to make ultimatums to the president of her party, and jeopardize the political agenda of the Democratic Party of which she is putatively a member. This is totally unacceptable. Back in the day, this would have been unthinkable, and resulted in harsh sanctions from party leadership. Kyrsten Sinema is a political pariah.

Kyrsten Sinema should resign from office and take that sweet lobbyist job she is lining up with her performance politics (she knows that she will not win a Democratic primary in 2024, she is a one termer), and allow Arizona Democrats to select her replacement with a real Democrat who will represent the interests of the Arizonans who voted for her under false pretenses. Sinema committed a profound fraud on the electorate. She is only interested in herself. She does not care a wit about Arizonans who voted for her. Goodbye, and good riddance.

Governor Ducey must appoint a Democrat from three names submitted by the Democratic Party to fill a vacancy in Sinema’s seat.

The Arizona Democratic Party’s Winter State Committee meeting is next weekend. Sen. Sinema must be censured by the Democratic Party for her obstruction of voting rights legislation.

If she leaves the party, further demonstrating that she was elected under false pretenses, what’s the difference? She is enabling the Sedition Party and udermining President Boden’s agenda now.

It would be easier for Democrats to run against the subversive “Grim Reaper of Democracy,” Mitch McConnell’s Sedition Party and policy of “total obstruction” to undermine American democracy. It would be clearer to the voters where the real problem lies instead of the lazy media meme that Democrats are failing to deliver on their promises. No, two Vichy Democrats have sold out and collaborated with the enemies of democracy to enable the Sedition Party and its ongoing slow-motion insurrection. This is a story of betrayal of American democracy.

Do not color all Democrats with the traitorous actions of these two Vichy Democrats. The Democratic Party remains the only political party committed to defending American democracy, this has not changed. We must elect real Democrats ot office to save Amercan democracy.

UPDATE: Iowa Democratic Senate hopeful Abby Finkenauer is not a fan of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. In a video released on Thursday, Finkenauer took Sinema to task for blocking Democrats from passing any legislation that doesn’t garner significant bipartisan support. What Abby said.

And from her friend, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.

You may want to catch the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC tonight. O’Donnell worked in the Senate and has an obvious devotion to the institution. He reminds us that Kyrsten Sinema’s purported devotion to the filibuster is a lie.

Voting rights expert Ari Berman adds some context:

David Rothkopf, the professor of international relations, political scientist, Daily Beast contributing columnist, and CEO of the Rothkopf Group was unflinching in his criticism.

Malcolm Nance, the intelligence, terrorism, and extremism expert tweeted:

And finally, her likely opponent in the 2024 election, Rep. Ruben Gallego.

 




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