So, Harry Reid wants to amend the filibuster rules and Mitch McConnell is shocked, shocked I tell you because Harry dares to propose that the majority should rule on this matter.
In his Wonkblog at The Washington Post today, Ezra Klein takes a look (great read) and notes that while McConnell weeps upon the sacred steps of the Senate decrying any changes to the rules (as did the Dems before him) and claims the filibuster to be a historical sacrament . . . well, here’s some real history:
The American system of government was built to protect minority voices, but the Founding Fathers explicitly rejected designing the Congress around a supermajority requirement. In Federalist 22, Alexander Hamilton savaged the idea of a supermajority Congress, writing that “its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of government and to substitute the pleasure, caprice or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent or corrupt junta, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
Apparently, some rabid Tea Bag guy is getting set to challenge McConnell a state primary in 2014. If that’s so, then look for Mitch to be hopelessly intransigent, as he may consider that the only way he can fend off his competition for all the crazy votes Kentucky can give him. It will be heck watching him in the Senate for the next couple of years, but it may be extraordinarily entertaining for fans of black comedy to watch him brawl someone even more insane than he is in a primary.
LikeLike
Ohhh, that would be delicous chappy – I hear they’re now furiously mounting a challenge to Saxby Chambliss as well because after a decade of doing so, he chose not to kiss Grover’s feet this mornng.
LikeLike
If it’ll put a dent in the Congressional gridlock, it’s a good thing.
LikeLike
It IS a good thing.
LikeLike