I’d pass for a moderate Democrat now even though my positions haven’t changed much.

When the Republicans were in the Majority, but not the 60% majority needed to break a filibuster they threatened to use the nuclear option and destroy filibuster as a safeguard so that they could get a budget bill passed. It was an onerous bill, but 14 Senators brokered a compromise deal in order to save the filibuster. The filibuster should be used carefully and not just because one is in the minority. Filibuster almost killed the Civil Rights Act because the DixieCrats didn’t want to give up on Jim Crow laws, but Johnson was able to muscle the DixieCrats by going after the purse strings in their states.

No, the Republicans are whiny bastards when they are in the minority, but that’s why they got elected. Their job is to block health care reform, but the Democrats (some who don’t want reform because they don’t want to lose campaign contributions) are siding with the minority. It’s like Kevin Garnett blocking his own teammate’s shots.

We need to keep the filibuster. What we don’t need is for the Democrats to raise their own hoop while simultaneously lowering the hoop for Republican shots.

Throwing games for gambling money has kept Pete Rose out of the baseball hall of fame. He barely avoided jail. Yet, our Senators throw the game for campaign contributios, and people consider it “just politics.”