Gang of 14 Gang of 14 The Gang of 14 was a phrase coined to describe the bipartisan group of Senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully, at the time, negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called "nuclear option" by Senate Republicans over an organized use of the filibuster by Senate Democrats. The term alludes to the phrase "Gang of Four", used in China to refer to four ex-leaders blamed for the abuses during the rule of Mao Zedong. Senate Democrats used the filibuster to prevent the confirmation of conservative appellate court candidates
Gang of Four (pro-Contra) Defense to the Department of State's USAID; they also supported negotiations opposed by Reagan Administration "hard-liners" who wished to overthrow the Sandinistas. All four members were nationally prominent Democratic Party policy analysts who had criticized the conduct of the Vietnam War. Their advocacy of Congressional funding for the Contras was unpopular among liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party. The label "Gang of Four", alluding to the Chinese Gang of Four who had allegedly sought a revival of the Maoist Cultural Revolution, was ironic. Gang of Four (pro-Contra) In the U. S. political history of the 1980s, the Gang of