Tim Walberg finally speaks truth (about the 60 vote threshold)

by: Eclectablog

Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 16:59:18 PM EST

I've written about Tim Walberg before. He's an über right-wing Republican one-term Representative from Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

In a press release today, he quotes a Huffington Post piece I did today that was posted here on Saturday.

Then he goes on to say this:

At the Western Washtenaw Democrats meeting last Friday, Mark Schauer came out strongly in favor of pushing the Democrats' health care bill through the Senate without the standard requirement of 60 votes.

Ahhh. Finally. A Republican admitting that the threshold to pass legislation through the Senate in this country is no longer the Constitutionally-mandated 51 votes. Now it's 60.

For a Republican liar, you gotta give the guy credit for a brief moment of honesty.

Schauer Pushes Even Harder for Democrats' Health Care Plan
Ignoring the Will of the People By Supporting Trillion Dollar Deficits and Government Takeover of Health Care

Tipton, MI -- Despite the Democrats' loss in the Massachusetts Senate race and 61% of voters wanting Congress to drop the health care plan, Mark Schauer, himself trailing in his re-election bid, has decided to push full steam ahead for the Democrats' health care plan.

At the Western Washtenaw Democrats meeting last Friday, Mark Schauer came out strongly in favor of pushing the Democrats' health care bill through the Senate without the standard requirement of 60 votes, saying, "The long and short of that is that it doesn't take 60 votes. It takes 51. That's actually what our democracy is about. Anybody that complains about that, I'm going to give it to 'em and say it's not 60 votes that's a majority, 51 votes is a majority."

"Once again, Mark Schauer is choosing to ignore the will of the people.  He ignored his constituents when he voted for trillion dollar deficits and a national energy tax, and he literally ignored his constituents last summer by refusing to hold a health care town hall meeting until after the health care vote.  Instead of Mark Schauer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trillion dollar government takeover of health care, citizens want common sense, patient-centered reforms to make health care more affordable and accessible," said Tim Walberg.

Without the "standard requirement of 60 votes". Unbelievable.

As Schauer said in his comments at the meeting, "Walberg, what are you going to say? I mean the guy was a charter member of the Party of No, did nothing, actually embraced - the people who ruined our economy, were the ones that got him elected the first time and tried to get him reelected against me."

If he keeps speaking the truth like this, Tim Walberg might get replaced as the poster child for the Club for Growth by Brian Rooney, a man who is, remarkably, making Tim Walberg look moderate. And that's something that takes some doing.

I'm looking forward to the catfight between Rooney and Walberg. I'm hoping they bloody each other up so bad that the winner of the MI-07 Republican primary will come away looking really bad in the eyes of the voters.

Meanwhile, it's good to see some Republicans finally admitting what some many of us progressives have known all along -- that they will filibuster ANY Democratic legislation that comes down the pike.

[Photo by Tom Knox]

Do we really need any further reason to get rid of the filibuster? I'm starting to think not.

I'm just sayin'...