I’ve been wondering whether or not Harry Reid has enough votes in his own caucus to change the rules of the Senate next year. It sure sounds like he believes that he does. He says he is going to change the rules and that he isn’t going to settle for any handshake agreement from Mitch McConnell. I guess that this means that Reid is at least locked into making an effort to change the rules, and I doubt he would commit himself this way if he didn’t feel pretty confident about his prospects of succeeding.
I suppose it is possible that he is bluffing in an effort to convince McConnell to make concessions, but I think it is more likely that Reid actually does have enough support to make the changes if McConnell refuses to come to the table with a serious proposal.
It will be interesting to see what actually winds up happening. I like the proposed reforms, but I worry that we’ll get relatively little out of them compared to the risk we will incur down the line.
