Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have
teamed up to make the Senate a place of happiness and light once more. Or something. But it seems to me they're setting the bar awfully low.
During several weeks in January and February, aides said, Schumer and Alexander quietly orchestrated what both described as a “modest experiment” based on a simple premise: Senators should be able to debate, amend and pass legislation supported by members of both parties.
Why yes, yes they should. They should also be able to pass the critical legislation supported
by a majority of the Senate!
In a separate interview, Alexander said that they are “trying to start a week focused on what you can do, not what you can’t do.”
“This requires restraint by all senators,” he said. “But occasionally we ought to try.”
Let's be honest here. It requires restraint by
Republican senators, the ones who have been obstructing Senate business since 2007, when Democrats got the chamber back and even more since 2009, when President Obama took office. The Republican onslaught of filibuster and of poison pill amendments to every single key piece of legislation to come to the floor is and will continue to be the problem until real filibuster reform is enacted.
In the meantime, sure it'll be nice if some noncontroversial stuff gets off the floor. But that isn't going to mean that the Senate is fixed. Not by a long shot.