On the recordJanuary 5, 2011
the Senate is broken. During the course of my first 2 years in this body, there have been only a couple serious debates in this Chamber. The first one happened just a couple weeks ago, and that was an impeachment trial of a judge. The magic began because the cameras were turned off. Senators were not speaking to the camera; they were speaking to each other. Second, they were required to be on the floor, so they were required to listen to each other. After all the evidence had been presented, Senators started to engage back and forth about their interpretations of the evidence, about the standards that would constitute grounds for conviction. One would not have been able to tell who was a Republican or who was a Democrat. We had a real debate, but it took 2 years to have that first debate. Then we had a debate over the START treaty. That was a pretty good debate too. That also happened just a couple weeks ago. For the balance of 2 years, there has virtually never been a serious debate on this floor with Senators hearing each other out, listening to each other, considering the pros and cons, addressing each other's amendments.
