Senate

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/12/2020
  

  Sen. Sasse Gives an "Eighth-Grade Civics Lesson" at Supreme Court Hearing. It Got Panned

  by Valerie Strauss

  The Nebraska Senator, who holds a PhD in US history, spoke of governing norms above politics and got harsh criticism online. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/29/2020
  

  Harry Reid on the Senate, the Supreme Court, and a Time for Major Change

  Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin interviewed former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid, who suggests the time has come to remove the filibuster from the Senate rules in response to the undemocratic nature of the chamber. 

• 
• SOURCE: TPM
  9/28/2020
  

  The Democrats Now Face A Historic Opportunity For Structural Change

  by Gregory P. Downs

  Democrats have seen the consequences of their caution in 2009. In 2021, they may have the opportunity to learn from the boldness of the 1880s.

• 
• 9/10/2020
  

  Senator Ben Sasse Advocates Ending Direct Election of US Senators

  The Nebraska Republican, who has a PhD in US History from Yale, argued in the Wall Street Journal that the Senate would be made more functional by repealing the 17th Amendment and returning the selection of Senators to the state legislatures. 

• 
• SOURCE: Daily Beast
  7/27/2020
  

  The History of America’s Most Racist Frat Was No Secret—Except to Joe Kennedy III

  “The Birth of a Nation” was based on a Kappa Alpha member’s book. The frat—which still hails Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder”—praised the film for showing its Klan ties.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  8/6/2020
  

  It Really Is Time to Get Rid of the Filibuster

  by Jeffrey Toobin

  The noted legal analyst argues that the Senate filibuster must end. 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  7/30/2020
  

  Obama: The Filibuster is a “Jim Crow Relic”

  Speaking in honor of the late John Lewis, the former President said that the activist and Congressman's legacy demanded new legislation to protect voting rights, and that the Senate filibuster should be abolished if needed to pass a law.

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  6/26/2020
  

  There’s Another Confederate Monument in the US Capitol: Jefferson Davis’ Old Desk

  Once a symbol of treachery, his former Senate seat has become a tribute to his memory.

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  6/19/2020
  

  The Woman Who Helped Save Joe Biden

  In 1993, Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman in the Senate, joined Biden’s Judiciary Committee. It solved an image problem for Biden. The results were groundbreaking.

• 
• SOURCE: New Yorker
  4/12/2020
  

  How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief

  by Jane Mayer

  Finally, someone who knows him very well told me, “Give up. You can look and look for something more in him, but it isn’t there. I wish I could tell you that there is some secret thing that he really believes in, but he doesn’t.”

• 
• SOURCE: ProPublica
  3/19/2020
  

  Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness

  Intelligence Chair Richard Burr’s selloff came around the time he was receiving daily briefings on the health threat.

• 
• 2/9/20
  

  Trump's Acquittal and the History of the Intentionally Undemocratic Senate

  by Ed Simon

  What can and must be learned from the impeachment affair isn’t that resistance to Trump has to be fruitless, but rather that we can’t expect institutions and procedures to be that which saves us. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/29/20
  

  The Senate has a chance to take back power Congress gave up long ago

  by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes

  Calling witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial would revive the habit of investigating the executive branch.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  1/18/20
  

  Pence's outrageous op-ed holds deeper meaning

  by Jeremi Suri

  Vice President Mike Pence published a powerful, but deceptive article in Friday's Wall Street Journal. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  1/18/20
  

  Jonathan Turley Publishes Op-Ed: "What history really tells us about Senate impeachment trials"

  by Jonathan Turley

  "Past impeachments have shown that senators can indeed transcend petty political instincts when their names are called, not just by the clerk but by history, and rightly so."

• 
• 12/15/19
  

  A Senate Impeachment Trial Isn't Really a Trial and It Was Never Meant to Be

  by Harlow Giles Unger

  Only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were tried in the Senate. As the Founders had planned, both suffered humiliation but neither was convicted. 

• 
• SOURCE: Roll Call
  8/21/19
  

  Senate Historian Daniel S. Holt Featured on Political Theatre Podcast

  Holt discusses duels, bathtubs and other Senate mysteries.

• 
• SOURCE: OUPBlog
  6/14/19
  

  The impeachment illusion

  by Donald A. Ritchie

  What is clear from the record is that politically-motivated impeachments fail. Only in cases where malfeasance has become overwhelmingly obvious to members of both parties in the House will there be any chance of conviction in the Senate, raising the question: is a losing effort worth the trouble?

• 
• SOURCE: Think Progress
  6/10/19
  

  Missouri senator says it’s a waste of time to study history because it was a long time ago

  Sen. Josh Hawley says not to compare Trump's behavior to Nixon's because Watergate was more than 40 years ago.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/17/19
  

  Elizabeth Warren’s historically sound case against the filibuster

  by Julian Zelizer

  The Senate rule has long been used as a weapon against civil rights and other progressive legislation.