Last night, Rachel Maddow went off again. I think like a lot of us, she is a bit tired of the GOP being in charge whether they hold a majority or not.
Spelling things out clearly for those less wonky than her is one of her fortes. I wish every American was familiar with this chart.
The BOING sound she makes marks when the GOP was beaten back to the minority again in 2008.
Anyway, I think Rachel says it better, no matter what I say. So both vids are embedded here.
If you like the short version of things, here it is-
Rachel:
'GOP broke the Senate.'
Sen. Tom Udall:
'We can fix it.'
How, below the fold.
Here's a Pt. 1 (jump to part 2 around 10 min mark)
I love the Bennie Hill theme song. The (BH) show was pretty weak, but it is a funny segment with the music in the background. She rightly points out that the only power Dems seem to exercise is the closing of the doors at year's end.
If anything proves the body is broken, that is it.
Just like children the GOP. They make a huge mess and expect someone else to clean it up. What ever happened to You break it, you buy it?
How much does 1/2 of 1/3 of out gov't go for these days? (Don't answer that)
Here's part 2
Rachel: Is there a way to preserve (the rights of the minority) while stopping the breaking of the institution?
Udall: The Constitutional option allows on the first day (of debate) a majority vote of 51 Senators.
Rachel:
Do you have the support of Sen. Reid for some kind of filibuster reform?
Udall:
Sen. Reid has spoken several times very passionately about filibuster reform. At Netroots Nation (woot!) he talked about abuse of the spitball and the 4 corners rule in basketball and he said they banned those and that this abuse is unprecedented.
Yesterday, just moments after this aired, our own David Waldman posted on the very same topic-
Senate rules reform and the "constitutional option"
Udall's hope is to establish a regular order under which the Senate can keep its procedural rules in fighting trim with more regularity, avoiding both abuse and the upheavals that can follow when the natural interests in reform are suppressed.
(snip)
Udall's aim, however, is to establish that if the procedure can be relied upon at regular intervals, the impulse for change in mid-session can be channeled into a more orderly process, hopefully resulting in an agreement to play for predictable periods of time by a determined set of rules.
I'm not sure I fully understand how this rules change will work, and my own hope is flimsy at best:
Sounds great, so I'm guessing it means it has no chance.
All I know is that something needs to be done, and if this has a chance to work, I am all for it.
Rachel: What Sen. Udall is talking about there is what I believe is the single most important thing we can do on a single day to change Washington. It would make a huge difference in the rest of Barack Obama's first term, and might make a difference whether he has a second term.
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Updated by LaughingPlanet on Wed Dec 15, 2010 at 04:57:43 AM PST
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Chris Bowers just put up a post on the front page with this petition-
Join the campaign to reform the filibuster!
I always prefer a diary with an action item.
Sorry if you were watching the vids and the diary refresh messed you up. Them's the breaks.