Where did the word "filibuster" go? Not the idea, the word. Remember when Republicans were crowing about allowing "up or down votes" on Bush’s maniac Supreme Court appointees? Remember how they were threatening the "nuclear option" of removing the capacity to filibuster?
As the fine folks over at Talking Points Memo have been chronicling, in the days of Democratic power, some members of the press are finding amazing ways to avoid calling the current Republican blocking of votes on the Iraq War "filibuster." It’s hilarious, if deeply disturbing, that they would somehow avoid making it look as if the Republicans would engage in an unseemly "filibuster." A TPM reader posted this spectacular sentence from Reuters:
Democrats have all but publicly acknowledged that they will be unable to pass their end-the-war amendment because opposition Republicans are insisting on 60 votes for a victory.
If only we’d thought of that back when they were in power. Who knew all you had to do was "insist on 60 votes"? Next thing you know, the Democrats will probably try to insist on the majority vote carrying the day. Crazy liberals.
