The Senate was designed from the get go to obstruct, quite consciously built into the Constitution. Guaranteeing minority rights was a central tenet of the design.
But today the Senate is locked in moral bankruptcy and intellectual incompetence with pathetic efforts to address problems as glib as defining marriage and as serious as going to war.
The Senate was never intended to operate by majority rule; it was designed to operate by "unanimous consent." Nominations, even bills, can be held up for days, even months before a majority leader starts what passes for debate these days. It means any and all committee hearings must be shut down any time the Senate is in session and a senator objects. The Senate rules are an almost endless opportunity for mischief, for any member or faction wanting to play the role.
Racist Southern Democrats used these tools in the 1960s when they stood endlessly in the way of civil rights bills. Equally despicable grandstanders have done the same thing to health care. Any senator with the brains and guts to hamstring George W. Bush's blustering the country into war in October, 2002 could have done so.
If you want to fix the gridlock problem in Congress and fix it good, the best thing to do is to eliminate the Senate. A bad idea if you like democracy.
As designed, the Senate has the role of cooling excess, either from an overreaching executive or the House where a majority can run any tyranny. Instead, the Health Care Obstructionists sought to heat up their own political base and contributions to augment their selfish visions of future political self-aggrandizement. May they rot in ignominy for their efforts.
When was the last time we saw an actual filibuster? If an individual senator or a party wants to hold up the train because they have either a disgustingly selfish or admirably noble point to make, they should be permitted to explain themselves for a 100 hours on C-Span.
A filibuster used to require energy and skill to carry out. You had to know the rules, or a goof could shut you down. You had to be extraordinarily well prepared, skillful and alert to pull it off, with the energy and determination to endure. For those reasons they were a show worth watching and very rare.
It would be a useful exercise to force today's Senate peacocks through such an exercise. Instead today they raise their little pinkie, gridlock ensues and grubbing for votes the primary activity. Real debate and real filibusters are non-existent.
It is not the rules in the Senate that need adjustment; it is the members. Changing them would require Senate leadership with strength of character, intellect, and will to impose higher standards of conduct. It would also require a public, especially journalists, willing to exercise the same. Good luck to us on that.
Excerpted from Winslow Wheeler who spent 31 years working on Capitol Hill with senators from both parties.
