David Axelrod was all over the teevee on the Sunday morning circuit, walking back his "insane" comments about Howard Dean and his criticism of the health care bill, talking up the legislation and trying to tamp down progressive base frustration with the watered-down measure.
Little noticed in the flurry of appearances was his misleading commentary about the hallowed sanctity of the filibuster. James Fallows caught it though, and was disturbed:
Good for David Gregory. Just now, on Meet the Press, he asked David Axelrod whether the Senate's " 'majority' equals 60 votes" current operating rules made sense.
Not so good for David Axelrod. He immediately says, "These are time-honored rules."
Unt-uh. They are "time-honored" only in the sense of having been adopted awaaaaayyy-back at the dawn of time in 1975; and they have been of practical importance only really since the time of Bill Clinton -- and with a sharp increase in the last three or four years.
Can the chief political advisor at the White House really not know this about the filibuster? And if he knows the real story, why would he stick with this "time-honored" line? Either explanation is unsettling.
Either explanation is unsettling. Indeed.