Well, so much for this "hope" thing we were supposed to have about politics. Ranting ahead.

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Political news is really fucking depressing this week.  First Massachusetts elected a Republican Senator, thus almost certainly killing all possibility of getting through even the inadequate, neutered version of health care reform it looked like we would get.  I suspect all the MA people reading this blog did your part and are probably even more

Comments

[candrabindu]

My entire knowledge of the rules of filibusters comes from the West Wing episode The Stackhouse Filibuster, in which an elderly senator holds the floor for hours while reading a cookbook, a Dickens novel, and a book on card game rules. I didn't realize that it no longer worked that way, and am very disappointed; if you're going to hijack the Senate proceedings, you darn well ought to have to read recipes for deep fried fantail shrimp in order to do it.

Perhaps it's foolish, but I'm still holding out hope that what's left of the health care bill will somehow be salvaged. As pointed out on the Daily Show (my main source of political commentary, sadly), the Democrats still have a larger majority than either party has had in many years. And as obstructionist as the Republicans are being, I feel that right now the Democrats are their own worst enemy; if all the Dems really and truly supported health care reform, they could have passed a much better bill than what's currently on the table months ago.

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if you're going to hijack the Senate proceedings, you darn well ought to have to read recipes for deep fried fantail shrimp in order to do it.

Yes! I was horrified when I learned that they no longer have to do endurance reading of lengthy tomes. Where is the drama? The fun? The discouragement to use the filibuster so it doesn't get used on every single bill.

if all the Dems really and truly supported health care reform, they could have passed a much better bill than what's currently on the table months ago.

Sadly, that's a huge if. The Democrats decided to be a big tent party, and the tent includes a depressing number of people who don't want meaningful health care reform. This is turning into as big a debacle as health care reform was for the Clintons. I really hope your hopefulness is proved justified, but I can't manage any myself.