Sunday, January 2, 2011

When the United States Senate reconvenes Jan. 5, Senator Harry Reid’s Democrats intend “to change the Senate rules so that they can ram through their agenda when their majority shrinks … from 59 to 53 seats.“ Republicans rightly point out that this political maneuver flies in the face of the clear verdict of the 2010 elections. They have also been trying to make the point that it overthrows the distinctive tradition of the U.S. Senate, which has characteristically operated by rules that prevent a simple majority of senators from running roughshod over the views of a minority, or even of individual senators.