Wow! The normally reasonable Josh Marshall sounds so shrill as he talks about Republican Senators rash of recent filibusters.If anything it's worse than this as Senate Republicans have been filibustering just about everything. Everything on Iraq certainly. And this is the sense of 'filibuster' as it has been used more or less continuously for a decade.In the larger sense this is something that worries me in the abstract and I think Democratic Senators are really going to get a handle on for the future of the country and if we hope to get anything done legislatively after the next election.
The Dems are idiots on this. Reporters should note it, yes. But it's not really their job.
Most political analysts see real opportunities for the Democrats to pick up as many as eight seats in the Senate in 2008. This would put the Democrats at, what, 58/ 59 Senators? Not enough for cloture.
So we could be facing a situation where we have a Democratic President, a solidly Democratic House and Senate and still aren't able to get a damn thing passed because Democratic Senators haven't got the balls to to stand up to the radical Senators in the Republican party.
Democratic leaders need to get a handle on this now. First step: force real filibusters on these issues and draw the jerks into the public spotlight.
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The Iraq war brought to you by the GOP
SO, here is the scenario. The Republicans make a HUUUGGGEEE stink about filibusters and goad the Democrats into backing down even though the GOP would never repeal the filibuster rule. News sites bustle with debate over this issue (one-sided, but that is a tangent).
Then the Dems get control and any sane person would think they would use this moral advantage and make at least a peep about the rank hypocrisy of misusing the filibuster and they don't.
And I am supposed to think this is just a "strategic mistake" by the Democrats? I don't think so. Just as I don't believe the Dems opposition to Iraq has been genuine as they pass every appropriations bill for war without any relevant revision, I also don't believe this charade is genuine. The Dems are keeping their mouths shut on purpose, but nobody discusses exactly WHY they would do this and WHAT should be done by the ignored majority of the party with progressive values.
Don,
Sadly I agree with you. There's Washington and there's the rest of America. Everybody in that former circle, including the media, couldn't give a rip about what the rest of America thinks.
It's utter horseshiat, IMO.
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