A gentleman's agreement requires actual gentlemen

Who could have known that trusting Mitch McConnell to keep a promise to stop abusing the filibuster would be a disaster? Besides everyone except Harry Reid and a few senior Senators who have clearly been holding onto their seats well into dotage. So now we all pay the price for Harry Reid's gullibility on filibuster reform.

On the bright side, they're talking about it again:

Senate Democratic leaders have engaged in preliminary discussions about how to address Republican procedural obstruction, according to a senior Democratic aide, reflecting an awareness that key administration and judicial vacancies might never be filled, and that a watered-down rules reform deal the parties struck early this Congress has failed.

“The general agreement was that Republicans would only filibuster nominees in the case of extraordinary circumstances, and once again Republicans are expanding the definition of that term to make it entirely meaningless,” the aide said.

That 20/20 hindsight and five bucks will get you a latte at Starbucks. They're never going to get 60 votes to change it through regular order now, so we're stuck with this dysfunction until the next session. One can only hope that next year, should Dems be lucky enough to keep their hold on the chamber, they'll do a better job on reforms. If GOPers recapture the gavel, it's a pretty safe bet they won't be afraid to just eliminate it altogether so they can ramrod their agenda through without any impediments. [photo via]