Filibuster Ignorance

It really is astounding how many people simply do not understand the filibuster.

Bloggers are reporting media errors everywhere on the subject. I wrote about Diane Sawyer yesterday, but she's not alone. Most of the errors attribute the filibuster to the Democrats, or that the Democrats failed in some way with the "filibuster". Perhaps this is all because of the "gentleman's agreement" to not actually have a filibuster. It's been so long now that no one knows how it works. And of course, some of the errors are on purpose i.e. Faux News. But CSPAN?

For the record. It's the Republicans that filibustered. The only thing Harry Reid did was to make them actually do the filibuster, talk continuously to maintain the debate in the Senate chamber, rather than everyone agreeing that the filibuster happened with the failure of a cloture vote and then going home.

The only thing the Dems "lost" was getting enough votes to "stop the filibuster", which requires 60 votes. This is what a cloture vote is. Reid chose (was not forced) to put the cloture vote before the Senate after just one night rather than making Republicans continue the filibuster beyond this morning. If it were me, I might have wanted to keep them talking for another day or two, but I'm sure that Reid decided it would make the point he wanted to make, so he opted to put it to a vote. Interestingly, Dems did gain one vote from a Republican, Susan Collins of Maine.

The Senate goes on recess for August soon. I'm not sure it wouldn't be a good idea for Reid to keep the Senate in session throughout the break with the filibuster. It would sure highlight the obstruction of Republicans and would force the media to sharpen it's skills in, like, understanding how our government works.

In the meantime, ignorance by those who are supposed to know reins!