Nancy Pelosi finally came out and told the Democrats that they need to kill the filibuster if they are going to survive, if the nation is going to survive.
Democrats could end it now via the "Nuclear Option" (link below) which the GOP used on the Democrats in 2005. Democrats could invoke it, do the stimulus, extend unemployment, fix health care, fix the Wall St. bill, close Guantanamo, pass equal right and likely save the Democratic majority.
Or as it should be called as Democrats end minority rule THE CONSTITUTIONAL OPTION.
If nothing else, Democrats should agree as an issue for the 2010 elections that they will kill the filibuster if voters give them a second chance in November. Democrats can say the tried to be bipartisan but GOP would never do what is in the nation's best interest. The GOP cannot be trusted with government and Democrats will end the tyranny of the minority if re-elected, the will invoke the CONSTITUTIONAL OPTION and save America from the GOP. A unifying and winning theme for Democrats to save themselves in 2010.
Pelosi's commment today.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some advice for her Senate counterparts: Try majority rule for a change. Pelosi, in an interview with the Huffington Post, called for an end to the filibuster, which she labeled "the 60-vote stranglehold on the future." Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that "the Senate has to go to 51 votes, and not 60 votes."
The article goes on to note the fact that the filibuster is not part of US Constitution, that majority rules was founders specific intent not a unworkable 60 vote super majority.
The GOP simply threatened its use in 2005 over a minor issue of Federal judges, not even Supreme Court judges, and the Democrats caved in.
The "nuclear option" used by and created by GOP rules is something the GOP cannot turn around and claim is "illegal" or "un-Constitutional". It is their idea.
In U.S. politics, the nuclear option allows the United States Senate to reinterpret a procedural rule by invoking the constitutional requirement that the will of the majority be effective. This option allows a simple majority to override precedent and end a filibuster or other delaying tactic. In contrast, the cloture rule requires a supermajority of 60 votes (out of 100) to end a filibuster. The new interpretation becomes effective, both for the immediate circumstance and as a precedent, if it is upheld by a majority vote. Although it is not provided for in the formal rules of the Senate, the nuclear option is the subject of a 1957 parliamentary opinion by Vice President Richard Nixon and was endorsed by the Senate in a series of votes in 1975, some of which were reconsidered shortly thereafter.[1] Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) first called the option "nuclear" in March 2003.[2][3] Proponents since have referred to it as the constitutional option.[4][5][6]