In today’s WP mailer, the article about Biden’s speech [paywall?] said some reasonable things. but when it verged into the Dem’s chances in the election, the author went astray. Amber Phillips wrote:
Democrats had the votes for setting federal voting standards, in that Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) never opposed making federal changes to voting laws (although the devil was in the details). But the two senators opposed breaking the filibuster and passing this over Republican objections.
The idea that 50+1 votes gives you control of the voting agenda without any question is a common misconception multiplied over and over again by reporters who don’t seem to know how the Senate works. If the filibuster, as performed by EVERY single Republican’t is engaged,the “majority” Democrats cannot break the filibuster without 17 Republican’t defectors which never appear. Therefore, 50+1 votes cannot pass any legislation that is not EXEMPT from blockage by the filibuster. To actually PASS legislation, the Democrats would need 67 Senators or 52 to vote for a motion to exempt the current bill from the filibuster rule, or indeed kill the filibuster entirely. M&S are NOT on board with either of those tactics.
Once again, the media has fallen short in their writing about the current Senate. It’s not like they wouldn’t be familiar with the filibuster and it’s overuse by the Republican’ts. It is entirely the fault of the Republican’t Senators and their filibuster of the voting rights bill and the refusal of M&S to allow the filibuster to be voided for such a bill. The article baldly states different, laying the blame entirely on the Democratic “majority” and IGNORING the fact that the bill wasn’t allowed to come up for a vote — BY THE REPUBLICANS [with the aid of M&S].