This via a comment by dljessup here: as usual, Barack Obama is showing us the same keen political instincts and appreciation of long-term trends that gave us the 2010 election cycle.
President Barack Obama endorsed more changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate in a speech Wednesday, remarks that will encourage senators who want to deploy the “nuclear option” again.
At a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in New York, Obama specifically said Democrats need to change “how a filibuster works,” without going into specifics on what, exactly, he has in mind.
Because the current half-nuking of the filibuster has done such wonders in… making the President look weak and unable to shepherd his nominees through a Senate controlled by his own party. Imagine how he’d deal with a GOP-controlled Senate. One whose members have long and bitter memories of how they were kicked when they were down.
I know, I know. Heckuva thing when you can take comfort in the essential pettiness of the average US Senator*, particularly when he or she has been crossed. But I didn’t make the system: I’m just the guy giving unsolicited advice on how to operate in it. We’re all Bozos on this bus…
Moe Lane
*Not all of them. Some of them are good Joes and Jos.
I propose that any bill raising taxes or spending require 100% of the senate to pass and any bill lowering taxes or spending require only 50% + VP. How’s that for revising the rules?
I would support a Constitutional Amendment that makes the fillabuster a rule that the Senate can’t arbitrarily nuke.
Eh, the rules of the senate are expressly intended to be updated *by the senate*. I really don’t see that as a problem.
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I do, however, see the increasing partisanship as a problem, and .. the only solution there is an amendment rolling back the 17th and returning the right of deciding how to pick senators to the States.
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That should prevent future instances of failed funnymen (Franken, MN) or one-time-lucky business folk (Cantwell, WA), or flash-in-the-pan drones (Obama, IL) from finding their way in .. at least not *quite* as easily.
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Mew
It might’ve stopped Dick Durbin ( Downstater) considering the IL GA is dominated by Chicago, my guess is whatever Democrat they’d pick probably would’ve been worse ( if that’s even possible?)
Except we also wouldn’t have people like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee as Senators…
We might have still gotten Ted Cruz; he was the Solicitor General for Texas (so he did have time in the system) and the Texas state legislature is full of hard core conservatives.
You’d think, having – you know – *been* a U.S. Senator, our current President would have a better grasp on the situation.
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How’s voting “present” working out today, huh?
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Mew
I’m like you Moe, let’s stop half-measure crap and go full nuke. Bring it on!
Unfortunately most of our GOP Senators have Stockholm syndrome and will gladly restore the filibuster in its pure form the minute we take back the majority. And after that they’d be too afraid to use the nuke option.
Senators are like meat at the grocery store, it’s got a sell-by date for a reason!
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Senators are like diapers, they both need to be changed, for the same reason!
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Sorry, didn’t mean to hijack you here Midwest, but .. seriously, you’re right but it’s a known kind of a thing. That race in Kentucky that Moe is studiously ignoring comes to mind…
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Mew
Assuming McConnell wins said race, I’m hoping that his personal pettiness outweighs his desire to restore the traditions of the Senate.
That all depends on how many more times Reid slights him ( and the rest of the R caucus)
McCain on the other hand, lashes out by calling you names, and even then usually only if you are a Republican.
“The Vote That Must Not Be Named.”
Cryptic, but that’s all I’m allowed to say.