By Heidi Li Feldman
As readers of this space know, one of the projects I work on is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton For Senate Majority Leader 09. The goal of the project is to have Democratic Senators show their support for their colleague, the person who won more votes in a Democratic presidential primary season than any other candidate in history, Senator Clinton to lead them in the next Congress, which may or may not have a Democratically controlled executive branch with which to work. Whether the Presidency goes Republican or Democrat, it just makes good sense for everybody to know ahead of time – as in now – that the Democratic Senators understand that rank and file Democrats trust Senator Clinton to lead the way for the Party in the Senate.
The process of electing a Senate floor leader (majority leader if your party is in control; minority leader if it is not) is, like so much else in the Senate and in Washington D.C., not at all in the hands of ordinary rank and file Democrats. Nor is it in the hands of the the Senate as a whole. It is in the hands of one of the many smaller clubs that populate the Senate, clubs with no Constitutional status but with a fair amount of power. The relevant club in this case is the Senate Democratic Caucus, currently chaired by none other than the current Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, also an official of the DNC that has brought us a candidate very likely to lose the White House. Majority Leader Reid is aided by Senator Dick Durbin, Assistant Majority Leader and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Vice Chair of the Conference.
In a more ordinary time, were Senator Reid to step down for whatever reason and not seek reelection as majority leader for the 111th Congress, Senators Durbin and Schumber would be seen as natural rivals/contenders/successors for the position.
But these are not ordinary times, not for the Democratic Party nor for our country. Extraordinary times, as I have said before, call for extraordinary gestures. Senators Reid, Durbin, and Schumer now have an opportunity to show that they understand that true leadership sometimes means knowing when to step aside. I urge people to contact each of these Democratic Senate Caucus leaders to tell them about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton For Senate Majority Leader 09.
Contact information is as follows. Please politely ask these three Senators to send marshamc55@gmail.com with “signer” in the subject line (and any other person who supports this idea can send a similar email) so that they can be added as signers of the letter supporting Senator Clinton for Senate Majority Leader in 09.
- To reach Senator Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
- To reach Senator Durbin: http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
- To reach Senator Schumer: http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/contact.html
I would encourage people to use snail mail and faxes as well as email to make sure your message gets through. If these three Senators support Senator Clinton for Majority Leader – and if Senator Clinton decides she would be willing to undertake the position – the path to her election to it will be clear.
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Some further information about what the Senate floor leaders do [source]
Majority and Minority LeadersElected at the beginning of each Congress by members of their respective party conferences to represent them on the Senate floor, the majority and minority leaders serve as spokesmen for their parties’ positions on the issues. The majority leader has also come to speak for the Senate as an institution. Working with the committee chairs and ranking members, the majority leader schedules business on the floor by calling bills from the calendar and keeps members of his party advised about the daily legislative program. In consultation with the minority leader, the majority leader fashions unanimous consent agreements by which the Senate limits the amount of time for debate and divides that time between the parties. When time limits cannot be agreed on, the majority leader might file for cloture to shut off debate. Occupying the front desks on the center aisle, the two leaders coordinate party strategy and try to keep their parties united on roll-call votes.
The leaders spend much of their time on or near the Senate floor, to open the day’s proceedings, keep legislation moving, and protect the rights and interests of party members. When several senators are seeking recognition at the same time, the presiding officer in the Senate will call on the majority leader first, then on the minority leader, and then on the managers of the bill being debated, in that order. This right of first recognition enables the majority leader to offer amendments, substitutes, and motions to reconsider before any other senator. Former Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd called first recognition “the most potent weapon in the Majority Leader’s arsenal.”
Originally posted by Heidi Li
