Here's another view on Harry Reid's collapse into cowardice from FDL:
Millions of voters across the country gave Democrats a majority in the Senate this past November. They gave Democrats the power to fully govern the chamber. Democrats in the Senate were handed the ability to pass any bill they wanted and approve any nominee by President Obama they deem qualified.
Today the Senate Democratic caucus decided that is a duty they don't really want. Instead of truly reforming the Senate rules, the Democrats decided to adopt only a temporary bipartisan package of minor rules changes that are so inconsequential they are not even worth describing in detail.
The important thing is that Senate Democrats chose to leave in place a 60 vote threshold for everything.
Senate Democrats decided to give the Republican minority a veto over anything.
The party that lost the election was handed control of the most core function of a legislative chamber.
Senate Democrats took the power the voters gave them then quickly and decisively threw it away.
Every time Senate Republicans delay a vote, filibuster a bill, or stop the confirmation of a nominee it will happen because Democrats chose to abdicate their Constitutionally prescribed power.
Mike Bennet has whined quite loudly over the years about how broken the senate is, and he is correct, though lately he's seemed very comfortable in his well-paid and highly benefited position.
Mark Udall is co-chair of Third Way, just another organization that rejects liberal policies and undercuts progressive ideas at every chance. (Just saw that our fake progressive Jared Polis is also a co-chair.)
These guys will make over $1 Million dollars in salary by the end of their six-year terms. Yet the very job they must do is impossible with the standing rules they left in place. Did either Senator Bennet or Udall do anything to unbreak the anti-democratic, deadlocked US Senate? I really doubt it.
Our newly re-elected president laid out a progressive vision whose goal is to achieve the lofty ideals of our founding. The US Senate will be the place where those ideas go to die. And the fingerprints of senate Dems will be all over the corpse. |
