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Nov 21, 2013

Filibuster history?



Well, maybe.

It took Reid and Obama almost five years before they realized that the GOP was never, ever going to compromise with them. Not for a second, not even on a whim in an unguarded moment. Not even if they were given every ransom they sought.

Just like Lucy wouldn't yield, even on occasions that demanded some adherence or concession to tradition...


..or even when nothing was at stake, Kevin was not going to get in the car.

Nope, the GOP was hell-bent on blocking everything. Even the so-called moderates like Lindsey Graham who wanted unavailable facts on Benghazi before he'd even consider Yellen for Fed chair.

To be sure, the Democrats similarly obstructed Bush, but before I accuse myself of false equivalence, to no where near the same degree.

Well, alea iacta est. Now the Democrats get to live with their decision, which could be a good one as long as they exercise their new found spine. Because you can be sure that that the next time the Republicans were in a majority in the Senate, they'd have nixed this silly rule on day 1.

Seriously, the only way a democracy functions is by not granting veto powers to the minority. If the founders wanted such a veto, they'd have written it into the Constitution. They did not. (Take that you Constitution+founding fathers lovers!) By letting the majority party enact legislation which cannot be blocked with facile ease, it forces a compromise. This of course does not mean that the House will suddenly be more eager to compromise—far from it. They will, along with every other Republican, simply hunker down and make their opposition to Obama more visible.

Good.  Let the votes be cast in public and we can see where who stands. I wish the Republicans had done this a decade ago instead of just threatening with the "nukular" option.

However, I bet the Democrats find a way to botch this up. They always do.

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