The filibuster rules requiring that any party with the majority in the senate would need 60 out of 100 votes to bypass a filibuster, is what protects the minority party's rights and stops any one political party from jamming their own agenda through the Senate.
Dodd, who has served in the Senate since 1981 and is the sixth most senior Democrat in the chamber, rejected some colleagues' efforts to diminish or eliminate filibuster rules, which have turned into a de-facto threshold of 60 votes needed to get anything done in the Senate.
"I totally oppose the idea of changing filibuster rules," Dodd said during an appearance on MSNBC. "That's foolish, in my view."
I didn't agree when the Republicans wanted to change those very same rules and my disagreement was for the same reasons.
What Democrats need to remember is that November 2010 elections are coming up and all handicappers and projections are showing that Republicans are going to take double digit seats in the House and probably pick up quite a few in the Senate.
Should Republicans take the majority of the Senate, a long shot but becoming a distinct possibility, then Democrats would be cutting their own throats if they even attempted to pass the measure that Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) have proposed to change the filibuster rules.
The filibuster rules stop any one party from running rampant. Be in Republicans when they had the majority or Democrats now that they have it.
I would add the phrase short sighted to Dodd's "foolish" comment, to anyone that think changing the rules simply because they aren't convenient for you now, is a good idea.
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