Kudos to Harry Reid, Finally!

I've been pretty impatient with the lack of progress that the Democratic Leadership in Congress has made towards ending the war in Iraq. The biggest thing I've heard is that 'we don't have 60 votes in the Senate' to explain the lack of action.

This is because it takes 60 votes to limit the tradition of 'endless debate' in the Senate to a finite amount of time. In recent history, this has been used to require 60 votes to proceed with any piece of legislation. At any time when cloture was not invoked, the Majority party would usually back off and concede defeat.

Not this time. Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he would be calling the Republicans to task on trying to derail a change of course in Iraq policy. If they want endless debate, then they're gonna have to provide it by actually filibustering legislation that is supported by a wide majority of Americans.

This is a welcome development. First, it shows that Reid is ready to play some hardball in order to advance the will of the American people. Second, it will quickly expose the Republicans for what they are: blind supporters of a failed foreign policy that has sacrificed several thousand American lives because we were lied to by an unpopular President.

This should put their hypocrisy front and center and further swing public opinion in our direction. This will enable the Democratic Leadership to further press the growing number of Republicans who have expressed a desire to change course in Iraq to join us in casting a vote to end this war.

As an aside, the last prominent time that Republicans filibustered legislation in the Senate was over 40 years ago when they attempted to block passage of the Civil Rights Act. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Kudos to Harry Reid and the Democratic Caucus for standing up for the right thing!