We need a daily visual of the GOP's obstructionism. If the shoe were on the other foot, the GOP would have one.
I propose the creation of the GOP obstruct-o-nometer. A running meter that keeps track of the number of bills and nominations being held hostage in the Senate.
The obstruct-o-nometer would list up-to-the minute all the bottled up bills and display a running total of the number of days/minutes each individual bill and each individual nomination has been held hostage.
There would be an easy to read/understand conversational description of each bill and why it matters. Same for the nominations.
Obama and the Dems must realize it's not enough to "talk" about the obstructionism -- this stuff cannot be abstract. The American people need to be able to visualize it and wrap their minds around it. Folks must be able to easily see the impact on themselves and family/friends. The GOP filibuster of unemployment benefits is a perfect candidate for this. Where is the clock showing the GOP elephant ticking off the number of minutes since unemployment benefits lapsed? Where is the up-to-the-minute counter showing the number of people losing benefits? Where is the daily list showing number of projects being halted? Where is the counter showing number of people being furloughed?
At the beginning of each day, the Democratic Leadership in the Senate should provide each Democratic Senator and Representative the number of bills and nominations being held hostage in the Senate that day. Then on every talk show, at every press conference, during all floor speeches, they all should be repeating that number over-and-over again. And finally, they would direct the public where to get more information about the bills and nominations being held hostage.
I agree with Sen. McCaskill who said last week and I'm paraphrasing, "It's stupid to keep these holds secret". And she is right -- it's STUPID! If the shoe were on the other foot, the Repubs would be outraged and on every street corner blasting the Dems for these secret holds, telling everyone how this has never happened before to this extent in the history of the Senate. They would be whipping up mass dissent amongst their Tea Partiers who would be threatening revolution in the streets and planning to march on Washington. And every day the Repubs, with a healthy assist from Fox News, would have some new outrage related to the holds being looped over-and-over on the cable shows.