Nuke 'em!
Well, it looks like we may finally be seeing some movement on an issue I've been pushing for a couple of months now -- elimination of the filibuster in the Senate. Politics Plus has a comprehensive post up about the issue, including a video of Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes discussing the options (and it's where I found the image above). If the Democrats really have the guts to do this, it would restore majority rule and completely change the range of available options in Washington -- the public option and Medicare expansion could be back on the table, and we should be able to get a far better jobs bill and much stronger Wall Street re-regulation and climate legislation than we can hope for now. Ceterum censeo filibusterem esse delendam!
posted by Infidel753 at 2:51 AM
15 Comments:
I just have no faith in these people and continue to say I'll believe it when it happens.
Let's wait and see.
Even Joe Scarborough said this morning, Americans want a STRONG president more than anything. If they can pass healthcare with a public option Obamas numbers will SOAR, and so will dems in Congress!
And as an added bonus, we'd get to watch Beck's and Limbaugh's heads explode.....
Wish I shared the optimism ... with profound regrets ... methinks ... there will be cowardice as usual.
One request: May we change the word "explode" to "implode?" Less mess to cleanup afterward.
But an explosion is so much more spectacular.....Still, there's probably not much in there to detonate.
I agree that the filibuster rule must go, along with the super majority vote thing. Unfortunately, I do not see it happening, at least not with this Congress.
Hope springs eternal. (No sarcasm. Really.)
I admit I too would prefer watching a good explosion -- and leave the clean-up to somebody else. (Eh, there wouldn't be much to clean up.)
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that filibuster revision has even less chance of making it through the Senate than a single payer health plan. At this point, way too many Democratic Senators collapse every time the Republicans say "boo."
MM/E/GE: I'm gambling that they're more afraid of the voters than they are of the Republicans.
If the filibuster remains, Republicans will be able to block or weaken any jobs bill -- and unemployment will stay high and a lot of Democrats won't get re-elected.
If the filibuster remains, they won't be able to get any major legislation through -- and they'll look ineffectual and won't get re-elected.
If the filibuster is gone, they will be able to do those things, and they may be able to add the public option and Medicare expansion (which polls show a majority of people want) back into the health reform bill -- and they'll stand a better chance of getting re-elected.
A few million voters ready to burn up the phone and fax and e-mail lines to the Senate in favor of the idea wouldn't go amiss, either.
"Filibastards," I love creative formation of new words.
Of course, this plan falls apart when the "rethuglicans" take back the senate and use the same new rules to jam their stuff through...
SF: I don't anticipate that happening unless the Republicans move back considerably toward the political center, but if and when it does happen, well, a mandate from the people is a mandate from the people.
What can I say...? Good luck.
Umm, shouldn't filibuster be in the nominative there?
Been reading about the other Cato; the dementedly obstructive and paranoid boni definitely remind me of some other folks.
I don't speak Latin -- I got tired of running into native speakers who corrected my grammar. I just used the same ending as on Carthaginem in the original.
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