Some Important GOP Advice on the Filibuster

There is so much B.S. flying around on this ridiculous filibuster fight right now it's hard to know where to even find some rational analysis of the situation. So I decided to explore what some of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution have said about this in the past, and I came upon some thoughtful words from longtime Senate Majority Whip Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK). Up until last year when he resigned to become a lobbyist, Nickles had been one of the chief architects of the GOP's congressional agenda. Maybe the Senate Republicans should step back for a second and consider his well-thought out advice from 1995. Even as he was assuming majority control of the Senate in 1995, the archconservative and ultra-partisan Nickles had some choice words about the filibuster.

"I think it would be a mistake to eliminate all the rules of the Senate dealing with the filibuster...There's real wisdom in the fact that the Senate is a more deliberate body, that- not all legislation that we pass is good, and sometimes it makes good sense for us to look at it, and so, no, I wouldn't favor reducing the 60-vote margin to, basically, eliminate cloture or eliminate filibuster."
- Sen. Don Nickles, CNN, 1/5/95

By the way - big surprise here - Chris Matthews, that bastion of supposedly hard-hitting journalism, had Nickles on his show recently to specifically discuss the filibuster, and didn't even bother to ask Nickles about his comments. Oh, but how stupid of me to think Matthews or the crew at MSNBC would actually bother to take 5 minutes and do any homework/research before interviewing someone (the fact that Matthews still calls his political suck-up show "Hardball" instead of "Softball" or "Fluffball" still makes me laugh everytime I can have the masochistic urge and intestinal fortitude to watch it).