Filibuster may yet evaporate in smoke

Wow, stuff is ... happening. Joe Biden’s big virus relief plan has become law. And the Senate has confirmed Merrick Garland as attorney general.

“The president and his team must be thrilled that Senate Republicans are proving to be more fair and more principled on personnel matters than the Democratic minority’s behavior just four years ago,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just before the Garland vote.

We will stop here to recall that Garland would probably be on the Supreme Court now if McConnell had not refused to bring his nomination up for a vote when he was Senate majority leader.

But hey, who’s bitter?

Not Biden, who’s ready to move on to the rest of his agenda: immigration, climate change, education, infrastructure.

The only thing standing between Biden and real White House happiness is Republicans’ ability to demand 60 votes for passage of important legislation in a body that has 50 Democrats.

The coronavirus bill made it through because of something called budget reconciliation. We will say only that it just requires a majority, it doesn’t work for most bills and it’s not necessary for you to think about it anymore right now.

When it comes to something like the rules of the Senate, filibustering is a superstar. In our mind’s eye, we have a vision of an exhausting marathon in which a brave senator has the gumption to stand up and keep orating until his or her colleagues see the point.

That was a version that worked better in movies than in real life. In the hands of Southern racists, filibusters were a prime tool to stop change. And even now in the Senate, they’re mainly a threat to legislation aimed at helping minorities or the poor.

“It’s way too easy,” says Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who’s been a long-running opponent of the filibuster as it stands today. His solution, which makes perfect sense, is that anybody who wants to stall the Senate by staging a filibuster should actually have to keep talking.

Maybe they could also require everybody to listen to the debate. That’d certainly be the end of the game.

The bottom line on the filibuster is that it’s really, really hard to get anything ambitious through the U.S. Senate.

There are exceptions — like nominations. And, as we just saw, some money bills. And, the Republicans insist, tax cuts.

It’s getting so irritating even Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has expressed openness to reform. However, he’s not willing to get rid of this stupid practice entirely.

Brian Fallon of Demand Justice, an advocacy group supporting judicial reform, is a longtime Senate-watcher who thinks it’s just a matter of time before the filibuster gets reined in.

The Democrats have been waiting a long while to get through an agenda more exciting than not-going-bankrupt. One after another, Fallon predicted, legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will make it through the House and then turn the Senate into a kind of “Kabuki theater,” where, thanks to the filibuster, “they bring up one bill after another and have them fail.”

Finally, Democrats will be so exhausted they’ll demand some action.

It does look as if we’ll have to wait at least until summer.

Think of it as the season when the filibuster goes up in smoke.