It seems to me like the Democrats are finally starting to take the advice they’ve been getting from the left since Obama took office. No more interminable negotiating with the Party of Hell No. No more preemptive compromising. Starting to get tough on holds and filibusters and setting aside time to get some confirmations through. Which is all good, because they will never get financial, immigration, and climate reforms, a new Supreme Court nominee, the budget, and appropriations done unless they fly through their agenda. As it is, there aren’t enough legislative days on the calendar to do all that and still get over five dozen outstanding nominees confirmed.
As I’ve said, I think they’re being too ambitious, but I’d rather see them try and get most of it done than spend another year like 2009 where we got strung out and took a political beating only to pass a piece of shit health care bill. Yeah, we absolutely had to pass it. And, yeah, patience last year set us up to be impatient this year. But it was painful and I’m glad to see signs that this year will play out differently.
