Remember Journalism?
Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers has a nice background piece on the current Senate: Senate tied in knots by filibusters
WASHINGTON — This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.
The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.
…
Nearly 1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.
The Repubs have no intention of allowing the Democrats to get anything through. This is the first thing I’ve seen that makes it clear what is going on. Harry Reid needs to emphasize the problem with every bill that’s blocked. Eventually the rest of the MSM will figure it out. With 21 Repub seats up for election in 2008, sooner or later GOP Senators are going to have to alter their tactics to stay in office.
