bele gives us the answer with:
"I have mixed feelings on the filibuster, but this shutdown has gone on long enough. End it already."
I'm on record in this forum as to the filibuster.
Something about it is inherenty UNconstitutional.
It subverts the concept of "majority rule with minority rights".
It also subverts the concept of "one man, one vote" (because with the current rule, 41 votes carry more weight than do 51).
And don't give me that line about the Constitution permitting the House and Senate to "set their own rules". See above.
The political memories of many members of this forum are short, for some of you, almost non-existant. Don't you remember not-that-many-years-ago when (I believe it was) harry reid got the Senate to amend the filibuster rule so that Supreme Court nominees couldn't be filibustered?
If the Pubbies were savvy (and regardless of how slick they appear, they ain't), they'd force a filibuster rule change to automatically achieve cloture on funding bills after a set number of roll call tallies and a set time period of floor debate.
The rest of the filibuster rule could be left as it is, except for this.
But again, I say get rid of it in its entirety.
Doesn't matter if the dem-communists will get rid of it when they regain power or not.
We can't live our lives fearing what could happen in the future when the other side gets control.
We must govern with realpolitik, in the here-and-now.
Either go bold, or... go home.
That's where I stand, and I'm stickin' to it.
