Today, Chuck Schumer said the following on the floor of the Senate.
“As I said in my ‘Dear Colleague’ earlier this week, if Republicans continue to hijack the rules of the chamber to prevent action on something as critical as protecting our democracy, then the Senate will debate and consider changes to the rules on or before Jan. 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.”
Ah, there’s our old friend, the word “hijacking.”
It should go without saying that one cannot “hijack” a set of agreed-upon rules. The word that Schumer is looking for here is “using.” As in: Republicans are using the rules.
Moreover, Republicans are using the rules in the same way as the Democrats used the rules hundreds upon hundreds of times between January, 2017 and January, 2021. They are using the rules in the way that Chuck Schumer praised the rules being used when he was defending using them from within the minority back in 2005. And they are using the rules in the way that Democrats such as Schumer will use the rules the next time they lack 50 votes in the Senate — providing, of course, that someone within his own party sees fit to save him from himself.
