Senate Democrats are finding it tough to make Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, quit talking.
For the second time in a week, they failed to cut off a filibuster led by Hatch - who is trying to talk to death a bill that would ban employers from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers.The Senate voted 57-42 to limit debate, but that was three short of the three-fifths majority needed under Senate rules.
The Senate voted last week 55-41 to limit debate. But because two union supporters - Sens. Al Gore Jr., D-Tenn., and Timothy Wirth, D-Colo. - were out of town, Democratic leaders tried another vote this week. They picked up Gore and Wirth, but no one else.
So Hatch and fellow Republicans still are free to filibuster the bill to death any time it comes up for consideration. "I prefer to call it `extended educational debate,' " Hatch said.
Organized labor tried last week to pick up more votes by supporting a weakening amendment by Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore. It would allow employers who agree to federal arbitration to hire permanent replacements if unions reject recommendations from arbiters.
Hatch complained in debate Tuesday that amendment "inserts the federal government potentially into every wage-setting decision in the United States."
Hatch said in earlier debate that the striker-replacement-ban bill "would stand a half-century of labor law on its head" and "bring socialism instead of free enterprise" by taking away any incentives for unions to agree at the bargaining table.
"They not only want the right to strike, they want the right to win every strike," Hatch said. "The balance between employers and strikers under law is very fragile, and we shouldn't mess with it. I can't understand how anyone who supports free enterprise could vote for that dog."
The House passed a similar striker replacement bill last July but was 39 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto threatened by President Bush.