A lot of people are talking about George Packer's article on the Senate in the current issue of the New Yorker. I think it's an ok article; George seems to have a better handle on Senate procedure than most of the DC press corp, although he still doesn't seem to understand how the filibuster, holds, and unanimous consent are structurally all the same issue, and therefore his reformist position seems a little shaky to anyone who does fundamentally understand the issues. (Case and point: an obsession with "secret holds," which also plagues the DC press corp, is a pretty good sign that you're not quite wearing the right glasses yet). On a couple of occasions, he also mistakes the changing shape of partisanship for an increase in partisanship, for instance when he talks about how in the 60's, the minority leader and majority leader often worked together to break filibusters. Well, that's because the minority obstructionists were southern democrats hostile to civil rights, members of the majority party. The majority coalition in most filibuster situations was the northern democrats and the GOP. Amazingly, he writes several paragraphs later about how most of the civil rights act of 1964 was written in minority leader Dirksen's office, but fails to see how the notion of party didn't really apply in the case of 60's civil rights battles. It wasn't a partisan issue.
Deliberations
Deliberations
Deliberations
A lot of people are talking about George Packer's article on the Senate in the current issue of the New Yorker. I think it's an ok article; George seems to have a better handle on Senate procedure than most of the DC press corp, although he still doesn't seem to understand how the filibuster, holds, and unanimous consent are structurally all the same issue, and therefore his reformist position seems a little shaky to anyone who does fundamentally understand the issues. (Case and point: an obsession with "secret holds," which also plagues the DC press corp, is a pretty good sign that you're not quite wearing the right glasses yet). On a couple of occasions, he also mistakes the changing shape of partisanship for an increase in partisanship, for instance when he talks about how in the 60's, the minority leader and majority leader often worked together to break filibusters. Well, that's because the minority obstructionists were southern democrats hostile to civil rights, members of the majority party. The majority coalition in most filibuster situations was the northern democrats and the GOP. Amazingly, he writes several paragraphs later about how most of the civil rights act of 1964 was written in minority leader Dirksen's office, but fails to see how the notion of party didn't really apply in the case of 60's civil rights battles. It wasn't a partisan issue.