The other night on the Daily Show, Doris Goodwin Kearns told John Daily that what is stopping legislation is not the Filibuster, but the threat of the filibuster. Her solution: Let them filibuster. Let one senator drone on for twenty four hours without peeing. Eventually, they will have to pee. it will be broken. Let them quote the bible for 24 hours, and recite letter after letter from constituents. Then break it. and vote, damnit!
The problem, however, is that the filibuster makes it unlikely that the administration will get much done this year. And the White House's disinterest in making an issue out of the filibuster ensures that the public won't really know why they're not getting much done. A Pew poll released today found that only 26 percent of Americans could correctly identify 60 votes as the numbers needed to break a filibuster. Twenty-five percent thought 51 votes was sufficient, and 37 percent had no idea
Ezra Klein - David Axelrod: 'Reconciliation is a tool that is there to be used'
