“Forgotten Hollywood”- Mr. Murphy Goes to Washington…
Manny P. here…
The filibuster is a powerful parliamentary device in the United States Senate. Rules permit a senator, or series of senators, to speak for as long as he or she wishes and on any topic he or she chooses, unless three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn (usually 60 out of 100 senators) bring debate to a close by invoking cloture. Most defenders call the filibuster… The Soul of the Senate.
On Wednesday, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, with the aid of other colleagues, held the floor of the Senate for 14 hours and 50 minutes. Murphy was fighting for a vote on two measures related to the issue of gun control:
~ Make it illegal for people on the FBI’s various suspected terrorism watch lists and no-fly lists to buy guns
~ Expand universal background checks
Murphy’s filibuster was motivated by the Orlando massacre over the weekend, and the Sandy Hook tragedy that took place in his home state in 2012. Due to his arduous effort, Senate Republicans agreed to put the bills to a vote on Monday.
SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY
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Since 1900, 14 filibusters have been initiated in the U.S. Senate that have lasted at least 8 hours over a variety of issues, including civil rights, health care, tax cuts, and an increase in our national debt. However, the most famous filibuster may have been the one Jefferson Smith initiated in 1939. He’s the fictional character portrayed by James Stewart in the Frank Capra classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
CLAUDE RAINS JAMES STEWART
In the film, a junior senator (not unlike Senator Murphy) fights for a national boys camp at fictional Willet Creek, instead of a dam-building graft scheme included in an appropriations bill. The filibuster postpones the appropriations bill. The senator talks non-stop for about 24 hours, reaffirming the American ideals of freedom, and disclosing true motives of the dam scheme.
Oscar-voters were shocked when Stewart (or Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind) were denied a Best Actor statuette, with the award going to Robert Donat for Goodbye Mr. Chips. One can speculate that Stewart received an apology Academy Award the following year for his performance in The Philadelphia Story (denying the Oscar to a more-deserving Henry Fonda for his role in The Grapes of Wrath).
No matter the political party, America loves the filibuster.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Friday, June 17th, 2016 at 12:01 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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