When it was still funny to joke about a b-list celebrity challenging Hillary Clinton for the White House, Senate Republicans began exploring parliamentary avenues to root out an entrenched Democrat minority.
In October 2015, a small contingent of freshman senators proposed a devil’s bargain. With control of the White House and Senate up in the air, both parties would agree to some sort of filibuster reform without gaining any unfair advantage. Lucky for them, the effort flopped.
That failure may prove the party’s saving grace. Now that winning the White House looks like an impossibility, and keeping the Senate looks unlikely, the ability to filibuster should give Republicans at least some comfort as they prepare to enter the minority.
It’s the only parliamentary procedure to earn an academy award, and it’s one of the few options for a Senate minority to maintain influence and obstruct the majority. Because it takes 60 votes instead of just 51 to move most legislation in the 100-seat Senate, the filibuster allows one senator to slow debate by simply refusing to stop talking.
When Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., becomes the majority leader, the GOP will need to deploy the procedure for rearguard actions. Without it, if the Democrats only need a simple majority, there won’t be any way to slow or stop a Clinton agenda.
And if the rulebook stays the same, Republicans will be in good hands with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the helm — especially if they remain in the minority. The self-described “guardian of gridlock,” the Kentucky senator wrote the Republican playbook on guerilla parliamentary procedure.
Unafraid to obstruct, McConnell scorched political earth during both the Clinton and Obama administrations. Deploying those tactics, Republicans marched to majorities in both 1994 and 2014. He’s done it before, and a politically frustrated minority can do it again.
Republicans will be more than willing to repay Democrats for their obstruction. The GOP minority will have fresh memories of their rivals holding Zika and homeland security funding hostage. They’ll be ready to halt nominations and stall legislation and bring the Senate to a standstill.
More than mere partisanship, for conservatives that’s prudent politics and a winning strategy. Hard right lawmakers will rush to repeat the mantra about the best government governing least. Keeping Clinton a one-term president only occurs if they keep the filibuster.
Red Dawn Republicans will have an opportunity to use the filibuster to ground Clinton early on. During her first 100 days, she will be particularly vulnerable. In addition to staffing her administration and launching her legislative agenda, Clinton must prepare to lift the debt ceiling in March and draft a new Supreme Court nominee.
Maneuvering between that fiscal cliff and confirmation crisis, Republicans have a chance to force Clinton into governing by executive action. And if she picks up the pen and phone Obama left in the Oval Office, Clinton will be indistinguishable from her predecessor.
If that happens, Republicans have the chance to convince the electorate that they were never with her. They were against Trump. But that can never happen without the filibuster.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
