Mitch isn’t Perfect. He has a Lot of Faults in Fact. But the Last Four Years have Taught him How to Play Hardball

McConnell Shows Democrats The Political Cliff (lifezette.com)

“So let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues. Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like,” McConnell said. “None of us have served one minute in a Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent. This is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon, to proceed with a garden-variety floor speech…I want our colleagues to imagine a world where every single task, every one of them, requires a physical quorum. Which, by the way, the vice president does not count in determining a quorum. This chaos would not open up an express lane for liberal change … The Senate would be more like a 100-car pileup, nothing moving.”

He’s talking about getting rid of the filibuster.

I have mentioned numerous times over the years during both Democrat and Republican majorities that I am not opposed to eliminating the filibuster. The main reason for that is that I’m a traditionalist. I feel like the current cloture rule is cheesy and that we should return to the “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” style filibuster.

Turns out I’m wrong. I just discovered this a few weeks ago when we passed the original anniversary of the expanded cloture rule.

In fact, the current cloture rule is the closest to tradition and has already been watered down a bit. It used to be 66, not 60. And was set at 66 over 100 years ago, in 1917.

So, now I have a choice. Do I remain consistent with what I’ve said in the past? Or do I remain consistently a traditionalist? Because when I thought I was being a traditionalist before, in fact I wasn’t?

Hmm. Seems like this is the wrong time to change my opinion. Smacks of hypocrisy.

I hate hypocrisy. Maybe I’m rationalizing a change of opinion in defense of traditionalism because it works in favor of the end result I want.

Hypocrisy.

So, I’ll stick with what I’ve been saying. If the Dems change the rule, so be it. And I will enjoy watching McConnell employ his scorched earth tactics.

But should the GOP regain the majority, I will change my mind to now support the 60 vote cloture rule, in defense of traditionalism and in opposition to the GOP.