{"id":3703,"date":"2010-12-24T09:44:56","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T17:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2010-12-24T09:44:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-24T17:44:56","slug":"video-update-filibuster-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/24\/video-update-filibuster-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Update: Filibuster Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I posted Action Alert: Stop the Republican Filibuzzards!<\/a>, in which I discussed the need for filibuster reform.  In Yesterday\u2019s Open Thread\u201312\/23\/2010<\/a>, I added that all returning Senate Democrats have signed a letter to Harry Reid in support of considering filibuster reform.  Last Night Rachel Maddow, with columnist Gail Collins, broadcast an excellent piece on the subject.  After the video, I\u2019ll tie up a couple loose ends.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tom122007_Painting_Painting\"The idea that Democrats fear changing the rules, because they may want to use the filibuster should Republicans take power.  That\u2019s a fool\u2019s reason.  When Democrats filibustered just a few of Bush\u2019s most heinous nominees during the session before last, Republicans held the rules hostage and threatened a nuclear option.  Now that Republicans have made 41 votes rule the status quo when they are in the minority, changing it will be the first thing they do when they are in the majority.  The rules will change.  Take that to the bank.  The only question is whether or not Democrats will do it first to their own benefit.<\/font><\/p>\n

The notion that all Senators would like to be like Jim Bunning once in a while could be more worrisome than Rachel and Gail seemed to think.  Changing the rules will require Senators to give up a measure of individual power.  In the process, they will gain collective power.  However, it could still be problematic in a collection of 50 of America\u2019s biggest egos.<\/font><\/p>\n

Finally, my thanks to Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Senator for whose campaign I volunteered.  His persistent leadership has helped make this possible.<\/font><\/p>\n

The 5th of January awaits.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I posted Action Alert: Stop the Republican Filibuzzards!, in which I discussed the need for filibuster reform.  In Yesterday\u2019s Open Thread\u201312\/23\/2010, I added that all returning Senate Democrats have signed a letter to Harry Reid in support of considering filibuster reform.  Last Night Rachel Maddow, with columnist Gail Collins, broadcast an excellent piece […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-19-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}