If you aren't solid as a rock you will sink like a stone

Break out the Justin Timberlake CD because down in Georgia they are bringing Saxby back. The GOP pundits are dancing with their best White Man Overbite moves to celebrate the fact the Democrats now won’t have the desirable filibuster proof 60 seats in the Senate of the United States. Well buster, I have news for you. Like Charlie Daniels famed antagonist, the devil is in the details and here is why it doesn’t matter at all that the Republican won in Georgia.

For those of you not in the United States or if you live here but have forgotten your Civics lessons, here is a very brief and oversimplified explanation of why people feel 60 Senate seats is a magical number. One of the two parts of our Legislative branch of government is the Senate and there are 100 Senators (two from each state) in it. They pass their portion of laws by a majority vote. When a bill is being debated it comes to a vote after a cloture motion. If there is resistance, the minority can “filibuster”. That means they continue the discussion; sometimes for days, weeks or as long as San Francisco mayor Gavin “I look like the killer in the movie American Psycho” Newsom. If there are 60 votes for cloture, the ability to filibuster is overruled and the bill goes to vote. With 60 seats belonging to the Democratic Party there would be no way the Republicans could stop anything their opponents would want to push through.

I’ve got news for the media, the pundits, the GOP and the Democrats. The magic number is not 60. Assuming hell doesn’t’ freeze over or the Satans in the Senate don’t chime in, the magic number is 1. If Al “I was never really that funny or talented” Franken loses in the no holds barred, no suddenly found vote left uncounted contest in chilly Minnesocold, the number is 2.

For you see the 60 vote minimum assumes all Democrats and all Republicans will vote with their party. History indicates that is highly unlikely. For the 60 to be filibuster proof, the Harry Reid led party would have to hold to a unified position while holding their noses to avoid smelling the citizenry while they pass their stinking laws.

The idea of thinking either party will vote as a block on every issue makes about as much sense as the Big 3 Auto CEOs thinking their publicity stunt of driving to Washington, DC in Hybrids to beg for more money will be seen as anything other than exactly that; a publicity stunt. Republicans have in their ranks centrist and liberals like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Gordon Smith and Arlen Specter who vote with the Democrats more often than with their own party.

Republican Senators take heed. For you to have any chance of stopping the Democrats from steamrolling through you faster than rumor flies through Facebook you best hold arms tighter than Mrs. Leary’s second grade class in the finals of Red Rover. Hold the line.

People complain that the filibuster is but the minority party’s way to stop government action. I fail to see the problem with that. Government inaction is much better than government in action.


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