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April 28, 2012

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For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Filibuster overuse is hardly unique to Senate Republicans. Its use has been growing in a cyclical nature since the 1960’s (see Wikipedia cloture vote graph since 1947).

The filibuster gets more and more abused every time Senate majority changes hands. Case in point, just 7 years ago Republicans invented the ‘nuclear option.’ It wasn’t actually used but like a nuclear weapon it was the deterrent that convinced Democrats to step back from their own filibuster abuse.

The next time Senate majority changes hands it will again be the Democrats’ turn to abuse the filibuster and the Republicans’ turn to cry about it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_in_the_United_States_Senate

Sincerely,
Big Oil

Quoting Ornstein and Mann: "In the first two years of the Obama administration, nearly every presidential initiative met with vehement, rancorous and unanimous Republican opposition in the House and the Senate, followed by efforts to delegitimize the results and repeal the policies."

--What should they do? Belly up and go along with policies and initiatives they feel are detrimental to the country?

On a slightly different note, here is an example of how this presidential campaign will be waged by both sides in the coming months...

Candidate for President, Mitt Romney, is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage.

Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

Romney runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a hard punch.

Recoiling from the pain the lion lets go of the girl, and Romney brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A mainstream media reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter, addressing Romney, says, 'Sir, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.

The following morning the front page headline reads:

ROMNEY ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

To overcome media bias, Romney will have to resort to the same tactics. It's going to be the dirtiest presidential election in memory, probably ever, by far.

I am predicting an easy win for Barack Obama. Republicans are demonstrably pathetic in their zeal to hang on to the past.

The only spoiler to that scenario will be if the widespread hatred for Obama spurs enough voters to vote for Romney as a countermeasure.

Who votes, anyway?

Take a close look at the filibuster data and you'll see that while its use did rise somewhat during the W administration, it went from an upward trend to a geometric function since 2009. And @tucson, don't even try to suggest that they GOP is behaving somehow responsibly and true to their values. They stated almost immediately coming out of the gate that they would oppose Obama any way they could. I believe in a loyal opposition, but what they are doing isn't even remotely patriotic. But even factoring out the filibuster, the extent of the GOP's culpability includes the executive branch whenever they control it. They just govern poorly.

Just look at 2001-09. Tax cuts doubled-down in the face of two wars. Huge giveaways to drug companies with Medicare Part D. Unfunded mandates like No Child Left Behind. Turning a surplus into the largest (at the time) annual deficit (while obscuring the costs of the wars). Doubling the national debt. Torture. Wiretapping. Turning a blind eye, and even encouraging war profiteering, particularly for their big political donors. Absent regulatory oversight that gave us Enron and the housing bubble. The worst post-war economic recovery in terms of jobs and income. And the big one, the worst recession since the Depression.

Oh, but if you're in the 1%, you just love the GOP, don't you?

JackL wrote: "And @tucson, don't even try to suggest that they GOP is behaving somehow responsibly and true to their values."

--Politicians by definition have no values. I'm a cynic, but this is largely true, imo. It is practically mandatory to lie, cheat, deceive, obfuscate, sell out and distort in order to get elected. Vote for who you perceive to be the least dishonest. Obviously, in your case, that will not be a republican.

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