The Silent Filibuster Debate

 Life has been very stressful for all of us in recent months. We have been witness to savage storms of nature and human savagery of unspeakable dimension.We have been trying to avoid falling off cliffs and must now try to raise our ceiling if we are to avoid being crushed by the weight of our own stupidity. So how can we be blamed, amidst all this chaos and uncertainty for failing to focus our undivided attention on the one issue that, oh by the way, seems in many ways to be the root cause for much of the insanity that prevails in Washington. The filibuster.

The 113th Congress is now in session. Today, Friday January 4, is the one day when procedural rules of this body are most susceptible to overhaul.

It would seem to me that on this day, the New York Times should be an active participant in a debate about whether the "nuclear option" should be utilized so that 51 senators can vote to bring governing back into their body. But even as the Democrats propose certain changes to neuter the worst of the filibuster, and the Republicans counter with watered down reforms around the edges, there is little national discussion. And even less coverage in your newspaper. The senate appears doomed to more of the same old dysfunction that we all abhor. Our failure, and that of your paper, to focus sufficiently on this problem and force substantive dialogue on radical overhaul, is a missed opportunity.