Harry Reid's big decision: the filibuster

P.M. Carpenter on the economy.

And who holds the one critical key to success? It's not the economists; they're already doing their part, boosting pharmaceutical sales of antidepressants. Nor, even, is it the president, who's all-too aware of what the economists are doing, and consequently is motivated to do much more himself. Nor is it Nancy Pelosi, who possesses that marvelous elixir of legislative action: simple majority rule.

No, it's our mild-mannered, soft-spoken, always considerate, forever(?)-compromising Harry Reid. That's who. A man perhaps misplaced in time -- a parliamentary leader with Chamberlainlike gentility rather than Churchillian wartime cajones (sic - s.b. 'cojones'. Get a Meskin editor, P.M. - G)

Harry, you're going to have to change. And the first little to-do item in your personal reinvention is confronting the action-crushing obstacle of "phantom filibusters," soon to be (non)launched again with unsurpassed verve by that minority platoon of inactivist No-ism, GOP senators.

Besides, it is, as noted, the "mere threat of a filibuster" that today rules the Senate floor and every possible progressive move. It's the problem that poses as the pre-problem with fixing the even bigger problem: the economy. It will bottle up every authentically activist measure in perpetuity.

But, as political scientist David RePass observes in the Times, arm in arm with an army of similar observations elsewhere, "fixing the problem would not require any change in Senate rules. The phantom filibuster could be done away with overnight by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. All he needs to do is call the minority’s bluff by bringing a challenged measure to the floor and letting the debate begin."

That's a necessity I'd love to see: the clueless likes of a James Inhofe slouching on the Senate floor for hours on end, with C-Span's intense eyes bearing down, inarticulately struggling to justify to the desperate, embattled American people why the War on the Great Recession should not be waged with overwhelming force.

Come on, Harry. Make 'em do it. Make them make the public fools of themselves they are. Because odds are, they'd wise up fast.

Ya see, Harry, the whole point of having power is the ability to use it if you have to. All it takes is some balls.