It seems that the hopes of reforming the filibuster this year will come to naught, or very nearly so. According to Sam Stein at Huff Post, there will be no exercising the constitutional option and no talking filibuster.
I guess this should not come as a surprise, but it is really disappointing nonetheless. Here is the bottom line of Stein's article:
Other aides said it's all but certain that lawmakers would drop another element of the Udall-Merkley package that would require a filibustering party to explain, on the floor of the Senate, the reason for their filibuster.
"Leadership has been against it," said one Democratic Senate aide, speculating that visions of being in the minority party in the future has left some members unwilling to commit to such a policy.
Leadership has been against it? So I guess everything we've heard from Reid and Shumer about rules reform was just meaningless blather?
But most of Harkin's colleagues appear to have greatly dialed back their expectations. The Udall-Merkley approach, said one former Senate aide following the talks, was more or less dead because "the votes aren't there" for doing something via the constitutional option. And since that means Democrats need 14 Republican votes, the party was all but assured to settle on the low-hanging fruit.
The rest of the piece talks about some very minor adjustments to the rules that from what it seems will be almost entirely cosmetic. The final decision is going to be made at a caucus meeting tomorrow, but if we are to believe Stein, there is really not much chance of anything of substance passing, or even getting a floor vote.
Typical.