Amplification: McCain against equal pay for women.

[dsrtao]

http://mattstover.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-from-long-time-friend-novelist.html

(Summary: the Senate Republicans filibustered against a law changing the rules on equal pay for men and women, so that lawsuits can proceed up to six months from the discovery of inequity rather than six months from the start of the inequity.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilwlQYv-XRhmiQFTlUtTmjvWMV_gD907S59O0
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/04/23/republicans-kill-fair-pay-bill.aspx

McCain made a statement against the bill.)

Comments

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

I've had a thought. The Republicans had a technique which they called "catch and release". This would allow legislators in swing districts to vote against the GOP so as to prove their "independence", as long as the bill had enough GOP votes without them.

Perhaps some Dems are doing something similar. Those who are in the pocket of big business might not want to see a bill like this pass, but don't want to be seen as opposing it, so they let the Republicans filibuster it and be the obstructionists. This doesn't hurt the Repub senators, it shows their fealty to their corporate sponsors.

If the Dems were really interested in getting some bill or other passed they could play hardball. For example, they could force the senators to actually filibuster instead of just threatening to. Standing there and talking for days on end my not turn out to be so appealing in that case. Or they could hold up some vital legislation until the holdouts agreed to a real up or down vote on the contested bill. Or they could incorporate the bill into some other legislation that others want to see enacted.

I'm sure there are many other legislative tricks. That they aren't trying them speaks volumes...