A brief review of ("majority") voting in the Senate.

The rhetoric being employed today betrays both a basic ignorance of what constitutes a 'majority' for voting purposes and an exploitation of that ignorance. Without going into the esoterica of the kinds of questions being voted on, let's try to be clear that the notion that 51 (50%+1) Senators is almost always the minimum required to approve anything is completely false.

Would it be a surprise to anyone if I said that 26 Senators (or less) could successfully and legitimately be enough to approve an action of the Senate? It's true, you should know.

Let's first enumerate the language used to specify what constitutes sufficient "Yea" votes to approve an action. The language used includes

• "... three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn ..."
  
• "... two-thirds of the Senators present and voting ..."
  
• "... majority of the Senators present and voting ..."
  
• "... unanimous consent ..."
  
• "... two-thirds of the whole number of Senators ..."
  
• "... majority of the whole number of Senators ..."
  
• "... majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn ..."
  

Now, let's look at Rule VI ...

So, assuming a Quorum is present, any action for which approval ("consent") is set at "a majority of the Senators present and voting" may pass with a "Yea" vote of 26 Senators, if all 51 Senators present actually vote. Even more, if some Senators declare themselves "Not Voting," the action can be sustained (approved) by even fewer Senators! When a Quorum is not present and not insisted upon, even fewer Senators may get away with 'consenting' to an action. Only comity and principle preclude abuses of such possibilities.

When folks speak of "Checks and Balances," let's try to give a bit more attention to the word "balances." When 26 Senators can 'consent' to an action, it's not at all 'imbalanced' to insist that forty Senators can effectively preclude such 'consent.' Indeed, the Rules of the Senate are rife with examples where merely a single Senator can legitimately preclude an action of the Senate, actions so numerous that they occur many, many times each day the Senate is in session.

You know, hide out in New Mexico preventing a quorum or wait until Bad Dr. Friskie Fritz goes away.

... the Senate Democrats can't prevent a Quorum. Some legislative bodies require a higher percentange of attendance for a quorum. It's all in the rules under which they operate, and those rules include the constitutions that establish them in the first place.

... has observed that the Rules of the Senate require unanimous consent to do anything contrary to the rules of the Senate. In other words, it only takes a single Senator to "obstruct" or "filibuster" any action of the Senate contrary to its own rules ... but the ReichsMonsters of the Senate are planning to violate those exact same rules even if fifty Senators oppose them!

I posted this in another thread, but that thread is also sinking fast.


What I have been wondering about is


when Cornyn adjourned the Senate on Friday, he said the following would be the schedule for Monday. The Senate would come into session at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, 5/23. Then after more debate on the Owens nomination, at 4:00 p.m., Frist would have the floor for 45 minutes. Then Harry Reid would have the floor from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. Cornyn then said that a vote would be taken at 5:30 to get the Sargeant at Arms to round up all of the Senators and bring them to the floor. I've been wondering what this is all about. Any ideas, anybody? This is Monday, tomorrow.

Cornyn announced the Cloture Motion for Tuesday, and said that on Monday, Frist would announce the time for the Tuesday vote. What in the dickens is the Monday vote all about?

That's been one of the functions of the Sergeant at Arms.



It's my understanding that Frist will make his first attempt to invoke cloture next week ... a so-called "test vote." (This wouldn't preclude another attempt to invoke cloture, that time invoking the "nuclear option.") Frist's purpose would be to determine if he really has 50 or 51 votes when the rubber hits the road. We really never know how Senators will vote ... things could get surprising. Or shocking, depending on one's expectations and sensibilities.

I will be tuned in to see what happens. I'm out most of the day tomorrow, but on Tuesday, I will be glued to C-Span2.