Secret Holds Coming to End?
Claire McCaskill claims that, with the addition of the retiring Kit Bond and Sam Brownback, she now has 67 votes to end the practice of secret holds, which allows any Senator to hold up a vote without bothering with a filibuster. It’s a hard practice to justify, although it’s not clear why ending it now will have anything to do with the rules of the next Congress, which takes office in January. Presumably, inertia will be on the side of keeping the practice dead.
Secret holds need to come to an end in the interest of transparency and ethical behavior in the Senate. Everything each and every one of those clowns do should have their name on it right up front always. I know, “ethical behavior” in the Senate or by Senators–wishful thinking, but it seems worth wishing for.