Reid Throws Out Baby With The Bath Water

In a move that is most certainly going to come back and haunt the Democrats in the US Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) today changed the rules in the Senate regarding filibusters of presidential appointments. No longer will the Senate require 60 votes for cloture when votes of appointments (other than the Supreme Court) are before the Senate. Now, a simple majority is all that's needed. And with 55 seats in the Senate (at least until next January), Reid is assured of getting Obama appointments that have been blocked by the GOP through without a problem.

There have been 217 appointments voted on during Obama's tenure in office. 215 have passed with only 2 being denied. That's a 99% approval rate, even under the old rules. So, why the change?

The change is because the GOP have been holding up appointments to the DC Court of Appeals, regarded as the second most powerful court in the land because it rules on matters involving the White House and Federal Agencies. Currently there are four Democratic appointments and four Republican appointments on that bench.

Here's where Harry Reid, once again, is missing the forest for the trees. He's changing the rules now, but what happens if the GOP takes back the Senate in 2014, and then wins the White House in 2016? Trust me. Harry Reid will be the first one to bitch that they need to go back to the 60 vote rule. He's that immature and childish. But he'll be up the creek without the proverbial paddle because the whole thing is his doing.

If Reid were actually smart (and I really do doubt that he is), he'd stop playing politics long enough to realize that rules cut both ways in Washington. What's good for his side today will be bad for his side up the road. It's the way the country has been since it's inception. That's because the American people hate the ones in power, get tired of them, and always want a change at some point. Where that point is, who knows? But believe me, they will seek change somewhere. And the Democrats will see a major swing against them when it happens.

Politics in America is like a pendulum swinging back and forth. It goes left and the Dems get voted in. Then it swings right and the GOP gets power. Then it swings left a little farther and the Dems try something new to take more power. Then it swings back to the right a little bit further and the GOP undoes what the Dems did, and makes everything more conservative. And so on, and so forth.

My question is, how far can the pendulum swing? It's already about 11 o'clock right now. If it swings back the other way to 12:30, there's going to be a lot of screaming on the left. And they've only got themselves to blame.

These guys don't understand one thing. When you don't get anything done in DC, it's a good thing. Gridlock is the best thing that can happen to this country. When you've got a split congress, like we've got now, neither side wins, but neither side loses. Instead, the country gets to move on down the road without having new inane laws and more spending passed.

And if you think it's just going to stop with federal appointments, think again. Neither party in DC is happy with the way things are. They both want to push the boundary as far in their direction as they can...much to the chagrin of the other side. That's the weakness of a Republic (and yes, Virginia, it IS a Republic, NOT a Democracy). We're going to see the point soon where nothing gets done, both sides are afraid to cave in on every issue, and the country's politics grind to a halt. That will be the beginning of two new parties. One has already formed in the Tea Party on the right. Wait until they take over and you'll see the Dems have a more liberal version of the Democrat party on the left appear. We saw the early beginnings of it with the Occupy Wall Street movement. But it never caught on because they really didn't have a cause to rally around.

Be careful Harry! You've opened Pandora's Box, and she's pissed!