On Wednesday, I posted Action Alert: Stop the Republican Filibuzzards!, in which I discussed the need for filibuster reform. In Yesterday’s Open Thread–12/23/2010, 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 on the subject. After the video, I’ll tie up a couple loose ends.
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The idea that Democrats fear changing the rules, because they may want to use the filibuster should Republicans take power. That’s a fool’s reason. When Democrats filibustered just a few of Bush’s 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.
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’s biggest egos.
Finally, my thanks to Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Senator for whose campaign I volunteered. His persistent leadership has helped make this possible.
The 5th of January awaits.
As usual, I found things in Obama’s press conference with which I agree and those with which I don’t. I still think Republicans caved on START and the 9/11 Responders bill, because they never intended to do otherwise unless Democrats surrendered again. I still think that the Republicans that caved on DADT did so because support for it in their states is so strong that they feared to do otherwise. I still thing Republicans would have caved on the tax bonus for millionaires and billionaires, had not Obama surrendered first by proposing the Tax Capitulation Act. I do not think that the Tax Capitulation Act made the rest possible. That said, in the last two years Obama has accomplished more sweeping legislation on more areas than any President since FDR, with the caveat that most of that legislation fell far short of what I wanted to see accomplished. In the press conference, the ivory tower Obama was back and the campaign Obama, so evident in DADT speech, was nowhere to be seen. Here is the entire 30 minute video, or of you prefer, 
Most of us were expecting Obama to cave-in on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and I feel thoroughly disappointed that he did. At the same time, I want to be fair and examine the problem from all sides. In his capitulation speech, Obama said several things that were true. It was clear that Republicans would not give ground. Republicans care nothing for the suffering of middle class workers. Had Obama held fast, as he said, millions of workers, whose real wages have gone down, over the last ten years, because of Bush/Republican policies and current Republican obstruction would get a pay cut next month. Republicans used the unemployed as a human shield. Republicans care nothing that many workers their policies displaced will lose their homes, be unable to provide for their families, or have their Christmas dinners in soup kitchens. Had Obama held fast, as he said, these things would take place. Obama was also correct, when he said that, if he held fast, the economy would lose over a million jobs, threatening the bare beginnings of a recovery. So Obama had reasons for making the choice he made. I believe he thinks he is doing the right thing. I also believe he is wrong. Let’s start with his speech.
There is a caucus of Democratic Senators. It has no name. Nobody admits membership. But it is there. We see this, because we have seen its stamp on most of the legislation that the Senate has not passed in the last two years. It should be called the Cowardly Caucus. Right now the Cowardly Caucus is quivering with fear over filibuster reform. They know an overwhelming majority of the American people support it. They know that President Obama has called for it. They are whining, “What if moderate Democrats (DINOs) side with Republicans in an up or down vote?” Their fears are probably correct, but I say that Democrats should proceed with filibuster reform by changing the Senate Rules on day one. Here’s why.
The elections yesterday were not decided by the people who voted. There were many factors. The Republicans out-politicked the Democrats, because the American people seemed unaware that, albeit with far too much caving in along the way, Obama and the Democrats did more for Main Street than in any session of Congress since the LBJ administration. Republicans were able to focus on every race, because of the record spending on lying ads, secretly funded by criminal corporations. But the election was decided by the landslide majority of Americans who chose not to vote. 
