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Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up
Daily Kos —
Your one stop pundit shop. Michael Gerson writes an ... pause in wonder over the words I'm about to type ... excellent column in defense of needle exchange programs. Harold Meyerson on the minority thwarting the will of the majority: Simply put, that number means that the Senate now runs by minority rule. A more corrosive attack on the first principle of democracy, that of majority rule, is hard to conceive. The increasingly routine use of the filibuster stymies the efficacy of government (in itself a conservative ...
Wingnut Mobs and What to Do About Them
The Mahablog —
Harold Meyerson writes in his column today:
Judging by the first public meetings on health-care reform that members of Congress have begun convening in their districts, America is in Second Coming time, in the William Butler Yeats sense. The best may or may not lack all conviction, as Yeats wrote in his classic poem, but the worst are sure as hell full of passionate intensity.
Meyerson notes that the forces of progressivism — unions, for example — are not turning out crowds at town meetings to match the mobs. No, they ...
Majority rule
Political Animal —
MAJORITY RULE.... Harold Meyerson has a must-read column today, connecting a couple of my favorite ideas. Meyerson notes, for example, that the right-wing mobs trying to stifle discussion of health care reform are very loud, but tend to be a minority. The far-right activists are "perpetually fired up" -- about all of their various causes and conspiracies -- but they're not the American mainstream, and they're certainly lack the electoral mandate that the president and the congressional majority enjoy. We are instead dealing with "a mobilized minority" which is making "a very ...
Filibuster Bluster
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ] In the Washington Post , Harold Meyerson attacks the Senate filibuster: A more corrosive attack on the first principle of democracy, that of majority rule, is hard to conceive. Not long ago, however, he thought that filibustering was just dandy. After the GOP regained the Senate majority in 2002, he ...
Midday open thread
Daily Kos —
... Is covering the birther movement, which makes up over half of Republicans, a legitimate news story, or is US News & World Report worried that covering the GOP's conspiracy theory crazies just a biased media attempt to make Republicans look bad? Because as we all know, reality has a well-known liberal bias, and reporting on it is being partisan. Clearly, it's the bloggers fault that the Republican base has seceded from reality. Harold Meyerson on the Birthers: When future historians look back at this passage in our ...
New Math
Whiskey Fire —
... Harold Meyerson is bemoaning the rise of the filibuster and minority rule in the Senate. Of course, like any good card carrying Villager, he's being very evenhanded in apportioning blame: ...
The Conservative Movement Has Launched World War Z
Open Left - Front Page —
... If I had to guess, I'd say this storm represents a segment of the population that is overwhelmingly conservative, overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly populated with people who can't sleep at night knowing an African American Democrat is in the White House. The Washington Post's Harold Meyerson agrees: ...
David Sirota: The Conservative Movement Has Launched World War Z
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... If I had to guess, I'd say this storm represents a segment of the population that is overwhelmingly conservative, overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly populated with people who can't sleep at night knowing an African American Democrat is in the White House. The Washington Post's Harold Meyerson agrees: ...
Time To Bust The Filibuster?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
... But the majority doesn't want to block these changes. They want action on these problems, even if they can't be the actors. So they permit these second-best outcomes that address the issues, but do so by shrinking Congress's authority.
That's not a very good situation, of course. It's less accountable, for one thing. And it's less efficient.
Ezra has more great thoughts here. Drum and Yglesias chime in here and here. Harold Meyerson offers some strong parting words:
A more corrosive attack on the first ...
Is Filibustering Constitutional?
The Monkey Cage —
... for legislative action (2/3 for treaties, removal, expulsion, Constitutional amendments) so the 60-vote threshold for most legislation and nominations to clear the Senate is an additional and unintended hurdle in the process. As evidence, they cite the inclusion of a previous question motion in the initial Senate rules as proof that the Senate was “supposed” to be a majority rule chamber, with the deletion of this motion in 1806 representing an unintended embrace of filibustering (Harold Meyerson agrees with this reading of history). ...
