It's time to invoke the Nuclear Option - destroy filibuster as it is today.

[Hawkeye-X]

Start passing progressive bills, and shock the U.S. and the teabaggers when they don't lose ANYTHING but GAIN EVERYTHING that there is to pass.

Republicans, despite their so-called "respite", are still endangered and will become extinct soon.

The only thing we have to do is push out the pro-DLC Dems out of power via progressivism and choice.

Hawkeye-X

[steveorg]

1. That would come back to bite us in the ass

I like the super majority thing when the repuglicans are in power. Unfortunately, that's inevitable.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. inevitable, maybe.

But if the Democrats told the Repukes to sit down and shut the fuck up, and passed some progressive legislation, they just might keep the Repukes out of power as long as FDR did.

And among those reforms should be getting rid of the electro fraud machines, breaking up the corporate media, and taking corporate money out of the elections.... so at least when the Repukes did eventually win, you could say they did it honestly.

[paulsby]

2. not this ahistorical, myopic, silly crap AGAIN?!?!

"Republicans, despite their so-called "respite", are still endangered and will become extinct soon."

man, how history repeats itself. the repubs have prophesied the death of the dems time and time again (like during the reagan revolution thang). they were wrong. and their hubris led (among other things) to their downfall.

and the dems have done the exact same thing, like you do here.

this hubris is WHY defeats like coakley's are made all that much easier.

repubs will not become extinct, nor will conservatism. it's stupid, ahistorical, myopic nonsense. it's a preening, arrogant sentiment mentality, and it harms the democratic party's cause by making people complacent, irrational, and unaware of reality.

and you are STILL spouting this crap AFTER repubs have taken the last three races? (NJ, VA and now MA?)

give it UP!

[Hawkeye-X]

4. Dude, we could ban Republicans from running again

if we had Nuclear Option, declaring Republicans a hate group.

Thank about it.

Sometimes you gotta take a chance.

Hawkeye-X

[paulsby]

10. hate groups are not "banned" from running

this is america. unlike europe, etc. "hate speech" is not outlawed nor are hate groups, fortunately. because i don't want the govt. defining what is and isn't hate, and criminalizing same. free speech does not exist when govt. has that power

[sendero]

5. the problem is..

.. when the Repugs are in power they GET THINGS DONE.

When Dems are in power they GET RIGHT-WING THINGS DONE.

See how that works?

[Gman2]

8. Here here, cept for one iota, demographics. In eight years, this place is different.

[FBaggins]

3. There is no "nuclear option" to get rid of the filibuster

You can only get rid of it by changing the rules (which requires a supermajority)...

...not to mention the fact that likely most Democrats would oppose such a move.

[MiniMe]

7. The Dems will be in the minority sometime in the future

No telling when, or even who the majority will be although most likely the repukes, but it will happen. The country swings back and forth that way. Even when Frist threatened to do it, it was only over judicial nominees. It is a nice thought, but that kind of short sided thinking is what got us Scott Brown. The Mass Governor used to appoint a replacement Senator, but the Mass Governor in 2004 was Mittens, and the dems in the Mass Senate didn't want Mitt to replace Kerry with a republican when he won the Presidential election. So they passed legislation for a special election for a senate seat instead of by Governor appointment. Of course, now that a dem is Governor, they would have rather had him appoint the seat, oops.

[paulsby]

16. thank you for injecting reason

i was getting so tired of all the posts claiming the END of conservatism and repubs merely because we kicked ass in the general (obama) and took over the senate, etc.

god knows, the pendulum swings, and being complacent is bad enough. being arrogant and proclaiming the END of conservatism is insan

[DJ13]

9. The current crop of Dems in Congress would destroy the fillibuster

...just to make it easier to pass pro-corporate legislation.

I seriously dont trust them enough to give them unrestrained power after the way they sold us out on HCR.

[me b zola]

11. K&R

[Robeson]

12. And when we have a Repug President and congress in 2012...

...how would giving them that weapon benefit us?

[John Kerry VonErich]

13. Just remember, the GOP tried that to get judges confirmed

nt

[Festivito]

14. First, let's make them actually talk, but add answering questions.

They can read the phone book only if they have no questions to answer. I'd love to get some of those goons recorded answering questions.

How often to we get one of those slippery guys to actually want to stick around when the questions become difficult to answer.

[shireen]

15. K&R... from 3 to 4.

i guess freeps are busy at DU today.