Desperate Dems Push Filibuster Reform!

I warned about this earlier, at my post, "Pay Attention to the Senate." As noted there, the Democrats, unable to ram through their agenda amid public opposition to socialism, will likely push for major structural reforms.

Well, the desperation is building. See, "Harry Reid Pledges Filibuster Reform."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged on Wednesday to take a serious look at revising the filibuster rules at the beginning of the next Congress, calling the current level of obstruction in the Senate unacceptable.

In a reflection of the party's commitment to changing the parliamentary rules, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) followed the majority leader by saying that his committee would address the topic soon.

"The rules committee is going to start holding hearings on how to undo the filibuster rule," said Schumer, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee. The New York Democrat told the Huffington Post after the speech that the hearings would take place two or three weeks from now.

In a speech before a gathering of progressive media, Reid compared the procedural games played by his Republican counterparts to the use of the spitball in a baseball game and the four-corner offense in basketball -- tactics in each sport that were ultimately outlawed.

"The filibuster has been abused. I believe that the Senate should be different than the House and will continue to be different than the House," Reid said. "But we're going to take a look at the filibuster. Next Congress, we're going to take a look at it. We are likely to have to make some changes in it, because the Republicans have abused that just like the spitball was abused in baseball and the four-corner offense was abused in basketball."

Also, see Ezra Klein, who's been beating the filibuster to death, "Reid Promises Filibuster Reform" (via Memorandum).

It's hard to express how appalled I am at the notion of Democratic Party filibuster reform. See my link at top for more (where I note how radical lefists have gone even further with calls to abolish the Senate). But see as well, Michael Gerhardt Larry Kramer, at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Protect Our Rights, Keep the Filibuster."