The following is from an editorial in the Seattle Times:
Congress is less popular than lice, colonoscopies and Genghis Khan, according to a brilliant survey by Public Policy Polling earlier this year. Dysfunctional is the word that most often comes to mind.
So you'd think a modest tweak of hidebound rules in the U.S. Senate would be embraced as self-preservation, if not good governance.
Instead, the Senate on Tuesday appeared willing to delay, once again, long-overdue reform of the filibuster. The filibuster has been the sand in the gears of governance, easily invoked by minority senates of both parties, with little immediate consequence but long-term damage to the public's perception of Congress.
On executive nominees alone, Republicans have filibustered 16 times. In contrast, executive nominees were filibustered 20 times in the past 60 years. Richard Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been held up for two years.
The filibuster is the weapon of the minority. Electoral politics has weakened the political will for reform.
On Tuesday, it was the Democrats caving. They cut a deal to get through a handful of stalled nominees.
There are about 100 vacancies among federal judicial appointments as Republicans filibuster nominees. That compares with about 40 at the same point in George W. Bush's presidency.
Once a filibuster is threatened, there are no all-night speeches — a la Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis — required. Senate rules allow the threat of filibusters and require 60 voters to break them.
Inside the Beltway, filibuster reform — allowing filibusters to be broken with a simple majority — is called the "nuclear option."
Outside the Beltway, that's known as an election.