From the flaks at the White House to the many minions of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrats welcomed Senator-elect Al Franken of Minnesota with open arms. Franken makes them all Superfriends. Or Supermajority Friends. His vote is the magic 60th, the threshold to thward filibusters and all that nefarious stuff that is so commonplace on Capitol Hill. (It still will be, of course). The Times notes today in What's So Super About a Supermajority? that it may not be all fun and games. Surely, we're still mucking around in perceptions and perspectives. As the Times quoted the elfin Reid,
"I am not this morning suddenly flexing my muscles."
The entire concept behind creating the Senate was to cool populist passions and slow legislation down enough to protect some semblance of rationality and freedom in our political process. As such, filibusters aren't nefarious, they're the whole point--and probably too far and few between, actually. What's more nefarious is the unending torrent of unread, unconsidered, antithetical-to-the-spirit-of-the-Bill-O'-Rights, blase meddling, and basic-right-violating bullshit that HAS gotten through.
Posted by: Shawn Macomber | July 05, 2009 at 11:39 AM