What does the" Whip" in congress mean and who is it and what is??

Question

his or hers duties??????

Answer 1

Wow, i'm sure the answer above me is correct, but it's REALLY long. So here's the short version:

The whip is the second in command in the minority party and third in command in the majority party.

The current Majority Whip is James Clyburn and the Minority Whip is Roy Blunt.

The Whip job is work with the Majority and Minority leader (respectively) to figure out a parties response to specific legislation. The Whip's office keeps track of how everyone in their party votes and makes sure everyone has the right info and how they are supposed to vote.

We get emails from the Whip's office telling us what is coming up on the floor, who supports it, and how we should vote. They crack the "whip" when it comes to voting!

Good question!

Answer 2

Excerpted from URL: http://mcconnell.senate.gov/whip_history.cfm This happened to be a republican page... didn't find anything quite as specific on a democrat page in order to give both sides.

HISTORY OF THE WHIP


The Majority and Minority Whips are elected by their parties and responsible for building support among their members on key issues. When the Majority and Minority Leaders cannot be present on the Senate floor, the Whips often serve as acting floor leader.

The Whip title is derived from the British fox hunting term "whipper in," which described the person responsible for keeping the foxhounds from leaving the pack. The Whip title was first used in the British House of Commons in the late 1700s to describe the officials responsible for marshaling votes on a given issue.

Official Senate floor leadership positions did not exist in their current form until the early part of the 20th century and in 1913, the Democrats elected the first official Whip, Senator J. Hamilton Lewis (D-IL). In 1915, the Chairman of the Republican Steering Committee, Senator Jacob H. Gallinger (R-NH), recommended that Republicans follow the example of the Democrats. The first Republican Whip, Senator James Wadsworth (R-NY), was appointed Whip and Conference Secretary in 1915. One week later, the Republicans decided to divide the two positions, and Senator Charles Curtis (R-KS) replaced Senator Wadsworth as Republican Whip.

During the years 1935-1944 the Republican Whip post stood vacant. Since the pace of the Senate was slowed and the number of Republicans were few (there were only 17 following the landslide election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, and 28 following Roosevelt's 1940 reelection), the Conference Chairman and Floor Leader, Senator Charles L. McNary (R-OR), dispensed with the permanent Whip position. Instead, he appointed Senators to serve as Whip on particular pieces of legislation.

The structure of the Whip organization has changed through time, depending on the managerial style desired by the party leadership and the conference and on the size of each party's caucus in a particular Congress.

There have been a total of 15 Republican Whips since the position was created in the Senate.

The Republican who served longest was Thomas Kuchel (CA), who held the post from 1959 to 1969. Charles Curtis (NY) served nine years, from 1915 to 1924.

Answer 3

i think you meant to say wimp - the wimp pretends to listen carefully before supporting self defeating proposals.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Whip

Answer 5

assistant