I think if we didn't have the filibuster, and the GOP was allowed to go whole-hog crazy, they would have been voted out of power sooner. In fact I think Bush and the GOP would have been swept out in 2004.

The downside is that Bush would have been able to put some crazy judges in power, maybe opened ANWR to drilling, and passed more PATRIOT ACT type laws, but I don't think it would have been a huge difference. Even with the filibuster he was able to get almost anything through the Senate, from his tax cuts to revised FISA laws to the Detentions Act. I doubt he could have put an end to Social Security, enough GOP Senators would have known that would be doom to their party.

And the upside is that when the Dems took control, they could more easily fix things.

Regarding that TPM post, the Congressional aide should realize that we progressives do understand that the conservaDems are to blame, but we also hold Harry Reid accountable for not being more aggressive about ending the filibuster or pulling other tricks to get things moving.

The country is, after all, in a pretty serious economic crisis. Business as usual will not cut it.

Lieberman too.

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; now we know that it is bad economics;" - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Will they vote for cloture on the Senate bill, and will they vote to end a filibuster on the motion to accept the conference report?  If whatever bone Schumer throws them to vote to end the inevitable filibuster on the present bill is stripped out in committee, I don't know.

I'm not sure how being the Dickhead That Killed The Bill ultimately helps you if you're a Democrat. You're not getting any new Republican votes, and Democrats could, even in a deep purple state like AR, stay home in numbers sufficient to cancel out any independents you add.

There's a political version of the 'uncanny valley' effect where opposition to something popular has continuing, positive effects for a politician in 'maverickyness' and 'integritude', right up until you're the vote blocking the passage of motherhood and apple pie, at which case you look like a moron, and a stubborn moron to boot.

Lincoln, Landrieu and Co. are playing chicken. They're right up to the edge of the political version of the 'uncanny valley'. I'm not sure they are smart enough to calculate exactly where it is.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. J.K. Galbraith

The unconsidered question is how much do Landrieu and Lincoln really care about what's in the bill? Is there any actual principle, no matter how stupid, involved or is all this public posturing? If the latter, as I suspect, they might be content with having fought "concessions" to vote for cloture, then settling for some innocuous language in the final cloture vote. They will have been good soldiers for their sponsors and will have mollified the imagined constituency that hates getting health care. Then they can vote against the final bill to further cement their loyalties. It might be easier than some think to get the next couple cloture votes.

If you're right about Lieberman, it seems like his fear of losing the chairmanship should apply to all the other cloture votes too. So just maybe there's reason for optimism about how this proceeds in the Senate. It will be ironic if the House turns out to be the spoiler after all.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

Apparently Reid thinks he loves his chairmanship too much to risk it.

50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts

I'm thinking that Joe's little friend Lindsey G. maybe paid him a visit last evening in the Senate chambers to get his mind off his those darned public options and his "principled positions".  Odd that he went down without even a whimper today...

That effort made it clear to the American people that the Republicans were not interested in bipartisan anything. Actions speak.  Which undercut all the Republican frothing about the lack of bipartisanship as a reason to stop the process.

50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts