Karen–Over the past year, I’ve been trying to keep up with a lot of different issues, in various fields, particularly foreign policy and national security. There are days when I don’t read everything posted on Swampland as faithfully as I should, sometimes entire weeks, especially when I’m concentrating on other issues or when I’m overseas. I’m sorry that I haven’t read the full range of your filibuster posts, although I do remember the one about the cots, now that you’ve reminded me. I tend to skip past political process stories in any case–filibusters and other parliamentary maneuvers, campaign finance rules, who holds which primary when. It’s usually futile to try to change these things.
But the filibuster situation is different and you were right to flag it early on. It has happened all of a sudden–in just a few years–and changed the essential nature of how the Senate works. It is at the heart of a serious crisis of governance. So, I plead guilty to coming late to this particular party and you are to be congratulated for having started it.