Political Quotes

“there has been a lot of discussion lately about how the Senate is not working properly. This is evident to even a casual observer. On the other hand, to understand how the Senate was intended to work and what has gone wrong requires some knowledge of the history and the rules of the Senate. I would put more emphasis upon the history than the present rules of the Senate, particularly the history and purpose of the Senate expressed in the Federalist Papers by the people who were advising the States at that point, the colonies, to approve the Constitution. To many people, this subject, no doubt, seems arcane and confusing. The simplistic explanation we get from the other side of the aisle--and it is a steady drumbeat--is that Republicans are filibustering everything just willy-nilly; thereby, grinding the Senate to a halt. Various vague and nefarious motivations are suggested as to why Republicans would do such a thing, but the point they want Americans to take away is that Republicans are abusing the filibuster. This message has been repeated ad nauseam by Democrats in the hope it will sink into the public's consciousness by rote. In fact, the story goes that Republicans have so abused the filibuster, the Democrats have no choice but to take it away, even if it means violating the Senate rules in order to change the rules. Can you imagine a political party saying it is OK to ignore the rules or to change the rules?…”