Filibuster

At some point, and I'm not sure if that point will come, the Democrats are going to have to decide if they really believe in their agenda. If they do, they're going to have to sell it hard to the voting population. Because if they do that, the threat of a filibuster will not scare them into craven submission. They will meet the challenge head on, confident that the Republican party will pay in the ballot box in the midterm elections for making Congress non-functional.

In the last 30 years (it goes back further than that, but it illustrates my point), the Republican party has never held 60 Senate seats. And yet their legislation got passed. The same applies to the Democrats. The filibuster is a scare tactic, and one that should not be treated as if it can be undertaken lightly. Unless the Democrats think their legislation is so weak that it could be brought down in a "Mister Smith goes to Washington" scenario, they need to strap on a set of spines, and get down to the business of governing, and pillory the Republicans in the press for daring to flout the will of the American people.

If not, they might as well hand the keys to the White House back to Dick Cheney.

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