Supermajority Rules: Use 'Em When You Got 'Em

(cc photo by kevindooley)

SR writes: "Does your disdain of the US Senate filibuster spillover to Wisconsin Senate Democrats abuse of the quorum rule?"

This kind of stuff is just dumb. Given that the filibuster should be abolished, do I think members of the Senate should filibuster bad bills? Of course they should. Your job as a legislator is to try to pass good bills and block bad ones. The real question highlighted by the Wisconsin standoff is for filibuster fans. If routine supermajorities are great for the US Senate, then the Wisconsin State Senate provide for them? How about Nebraska? What's so different about the US Congress that routine supermajorities are good idea there but not for state legislatures and city councils all around the country?

At any rate, if I were writing a state constitution I would try to minimize the possibility of quorum hijinks. But the good news about quorum hijinks is that you can't pull this kind of stunt on a routine basis, it seems require the holdouts to bear substantial personal costs in a manner that deters its constant application. But it's possible that things will change and state legislators will start pulling this stuff all the time, which would be bad.