Arrivals and Departures

We've noted the departures of Kennedy, Montoya and Bartiromo.  In the interest of balance I thought I'd salute the arrival of Harry Reid's testicles.  Their emergence became evident when he pushed through new rules for Senate filibuster.  Bravo Harry.  You should have done it sooner.

I live on Madison Street in scenic South Troy.  And James Madison, after whom my street is named, actively disliked the supermajority requirement when it came to the day to day running of the government, writing, if memory serves ...

" ... In all cases where justice or the general good might require new laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule; the power would be transferred to the minority."

Sound familiar?

And who's going to argue with James Madison?  The dude's on the $5,000 bill!

I have a couple of thoughts:

First, in politics the majority always, at some point, becomes the minority.  So sometimes one needs be careful of what one wishes for.  In the case of the Senate, this could happen next November.  Which would be a drag, but still, it could happen.

The good news is that you can make the argument that the 51-vote rule actually repositions power in the Senate from the extremes to the center, and that little more than a handful of moderate liberals and conservatives, banding together, could exert a positive, leavening effect on the entire body.  Actual statesmen and stateswomen, grappling with the important issues of the country, willing to break, on occasion, with their respective caucuses in the interest of the national good.

I can think of worse things.

Also, 51 was my laundry number in military school, so I'll always be fond of it.