On Jan 22, 2010, at 8:32 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
> 1) 99.9% of people -- included many very inside the beltway,
> including many senators -- don't realize you can change a Senate
> rule with less than 67 votes.
Really? I find that hard to believe.
> 2) Senators are deeply invested in their identity as Senators, the
> central tenet of which is that they belong to an "august" body
> (meaning greater than any other one earth since Rome); that this
> augustness is a function of its "deliberateness;" that this
> deliberateness is a function of "unlimited debate;" and that
> unlimited debate is founded on the filibuster.
According to Tom Geoghegan, there have been very few instances of such debate in the Senate's history. And in the old days, they actually had to talk. Now all they have to do is express a wish.
Doug