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- The fact that Harry Reid even brought up reforming the Senate's filibuster rules at Netroots Nation proves that he understands the institution. So why didn't Democrats change the rules at the beginning of the 111th Congress? Perhaps Democrats didn't anticipate the GOP's commitment to total obstruction. Or perhaps the votes weren't there in the Democratic caucus given the Senate is governed by the class of 2004.
- I wouldn't go so far as to say that raising taxes on the rich will mitigate Democrats' November congressional losses, but the upside of letting the Bush tax cuts expire is that it's good public policy -- if it helps Democrats electorally, then we have what you call a "win-win situation."
- One last point on Adam Liptak's excellent look at the transformational first five years of the Roberts Court. Liptak surveys the scholarly literature on the subject to ground his article. But he doesn't just accept it -- he reports on the methodological disagreements in the field. Furthermore, when citing sources hostile to the theory of ideological decision-making, he calls them out when they're mistaken. This is how journalists should write about a reasonably complicated subject.
- Weekend Remainders: Gee, I wonder why conservatives have forgotten how much they hated the first two years of Reagan's presidency; the conservative Journolist conspiracy; Kevin Drum catches a rightblogger asking a good question about the GOP's commitment to a governing agenda; and can someone explain to me why Howard Dean thinks Newt Gingrich can supply "intellectual leadership" to the GOP?
--Mori Dinauer
