It was early this morning and I was into my usual routine. Fed the cat, took the dog out for his morning business and got the coffee brewing. I then turned on MSNBC and watched Chuck Todd muse about the election in Wisconsin. Some interesting information and by and large I don't think of Todd as that big of a tool. It was between sips of my first cup that out of the corner of my ear, I heard something Todd say that gave me pause. He mentioned the 60 vote threshold...follow me below.
Todd began to talk about the fair pay act coming up for a vote today. I believe his words were something along the lines of "The Democrats plan on bringing up the fair pay act in the Senate today, but it's not expected to pass the 60 vote threshold." He passed over that sentence so nonchalantly that it made me think. Why has the media adopted this notion that it takes 60 votes to pass legislation? Now, I know what Todd meant. It takes 60 votes to bring legislation up to a vote in the senate. So why couldn't Chuck just simply state for the viewer what was actually happening? The senate Republicans won't allow the Fair Pay Act to be voted on. In fact it's pretty simple to say. Chuck could have said, "Democrats are bringing the Fair Pay Act up for a vote in the senate today. They have enough votes to pass the bill, but Senate Republicans, through the use of the fillibuster, will not allow the fair pay act to be voted on. This makes the (fill in the blank, I'm not sure how many fillibusters there have been since Obama took office) piece of legislation that the Republican minority has managed to keep from becoming law.
It just incenses me that the language has become so skewed. I'm sending a note to Chuck to tell him how I feel. I hope you do the same.