Dec 3, 2012
Merry War on Christmas, everyone! It's December at last, and time to ramp up our continuing series on filibuster reform. Despite numerous technical problems today, we pushed on through, and after a shortened visit with Greg Dworkin, we turned to another extensive look at the filibuster reform fight by reviewing this past weekend's excellent Up with Chris Hayes episode focusing on the issue with a panel of experts that included an actual former Senate Parliamentarian. And still, there was more to add, believe it or not! Armando also joined in the discussion, and we make the case that if there's really something "in the DNA of the Senate," as former parliamentarian Alan Frumin insists, that insists on unfettered debate, then it stands for the proposition that the Senate is empowered to do what it can to guarantee that that debate is real and substantive, and that outsized deference to procedural rules not actually inhibit the debate it supposedly protects.