Senate Republicans put out a statement of unity on Friday, insisting that their opinions be heard in the next Congress, despite Democratic gains in the last election.
The party's leader in the Senate stressed this tone in an interview with RTTNews and in a subsequent press conference, saying that while he hoped the Democrats would live up to their promises of bipartisanship, he and his colleagues were prepared to fight against irrelevancy in a government where the Democrats will control the White House and both sides of the Congress.
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, released a letter signed by the 42 Republicans that may return to the Senate in January calling on the Democratic leadership to avoid a return to the "partisan gridlock" of the last two years.
"We will need to work together across the aisle to ensure that the Senate returns to the regular practice and tradition of allowing all Senators their fundamental right to debate and amend legislation," McConnell wrote in the letter.
McConnell told RTTNews in an interview that the letter was a symbol to show Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that there is unity in the Republican Conference - a signal that Democrats will not easily be able to peel Republicans away from the party line.
"There is a great sense of unity in our conference," McConnell said. "There's nothing that concentrates the mind like the potential of being totally irrelevant. And the way you avoid being irrelevant in the Senate is to have the power of 41 or more."
In the election earlier this month, it looks like Democrats came up short of their goal of a 60-vote majority in the Senate, though a couple races are still officially undecided. This is a key level because 60 votes are necessary to overcome a filibuster, a legislative maneuver that a minority party can use to block a bill in the Senate.
Ruminating on the Republicans' position in the next Congress, McConnell added, "None of my members like the idea of being irrelevant, so I think we will have a surprising amount of unity."
He said the letter is protesting the practice of loading up a bill with Democratic amendments, "filling up the tree" as it's known in the Senate, then filing a motion to cut off debate.
That practice effectively blocks Republicans from offering any attempts to modify the legislation and disenfranchises the voters in states represented by Republicans, McConnell said.
"My members, without exception, signed a letter to Reid saying 'don't do that,'" McConnell said. "The history of the Senate has been unlimited debate and the freedom to offer amendments."
He added, "That's an example of early unity going in to the new session."
Despite the implicit threat to block Democratic legislation if Republicans aren't allowed to debate and amend it, McConnell said he was hopeful it wouldn't come to that.
He said President-elect Barack Obama's future White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was "saying all the right things" in a recent meeting with Republican Congressional leaders.
"They want to go forward and do things as much in the center as possible and try to achieve bipartisan accomplishments," McConnell said. "That's music to my ears, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding and we will wait to see what they advocate."
The fates of two of the letter's signatories, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, are still uncertain. Coleman faces a recount in his battle with Democratic contender Al Franken and Chambliss is heading into a runoff election against challenger Jim Martin.
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