By now we all know how the Senate works. If you don't like a particular Presidential nominee? Place a hold on the nomination. Don't want to have an overwhelmingly popular measure that funds the DC Metro to pass because it involves federal money? Place a hold. Perhaps you don't want to interfere with the way the CIA conducts interrogations with "enhanced techniques." Just place a hold. That'll take care of it. Or if you don't like the idea of posting campaign finance documents on the internet when they're submitted, you can (drumroll). . . . .place a hold!
Yes! It's a holdapalooza in Harry Reid's Senate! You can place a hold on anything, and it doesn't matter if you're a Republican! It's almost as if nothing has changed since the Democrats "took over." See, when the Republicans were in power, the only time they would place a hold on legislations was when a Democrat proposed it and it was intended to hold the Bush Administration - or worse, members of Congress themselves - accountable to the law or the electorate. And Democrats, in the eternal spirit of biBrodership and comity, would never, ever place a hold on anything. It was the Senate of up-or-down votes, simple 51-vote majorities. Any Democrat that wanted to stall anything was ignored.
Now that the Democrats are "in power," Harry Reid makes sure
that the Senate operates in exactly the same fashion. Any Republican
that wants can place a hold on any legislation that seeks to hold the
Bush Administration - or worse, members of Congress themselves -
accountable to the law or the electorate. And Democrats
Harry Reid, in the eternal spirit of biBrodership and comity, always
honors those holds. It's the Senate of never having a vote, of 60
votes always needed to do anything.
Unless you are a 24-year veteran of the Senate, a member of the majority party, and trying to stall legislation that throws out 231 years of the rule of law in favor of protecting a renegade President and his corporate cronies.
I've said it before. My priority is to get the GOP out of the White House and to expand the Democratic majorities in Congress. Once that happens, those of us in the 'netroots' need to work on primary candidates. We need to turn the seats Democratic, and then get rid of the people occupying them. And we won't even need to get rid of every useless Democrat in Congress - that is to say, almost all of them. We just need to get rid of a few, and the rest will see their self-preservation instinct kick in. Not even their obsequiousness to their corporate and media masters can overcome the Congresscritters' desire to remain Congresscritters.
Oh, and go read Greenwald, like you should every day.
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