Very Good Move, Way Overdue

Joe Sudbay has a good analysis of Obama's latest move to get health care reform passed: he's insisting that the Senate go back to working the way the Senate is supposed to work. You'll remember that the Iron Man (a/k/a Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) caved to the Republicans and managed to wind up with a non-functional Senate in which everything had to have 60 votes, for fear of filibusters -- but of course, when Republicans do it, it's "debate."

Here's the NYT report. The gist:

The no-filibuster arrangement is fiercely opposed by Republican leaders, who say health care is too important to be exempted from the Senate rules that usually mean major bills must win support from 60 senators.

At the White House meeting this week, Mr. Obama told senators from both parties that he did not want a health care overhaul to fail if it came up a vote shy of the 60 needed to break filibusters, the people with knowledge of the session said. Republicans have used the procedure themselves in the past, but Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, told Mr. Obama in the meeting that that approach was likely to heighten partisan tensions in Congress.

In other words, McConnell is pissed because the Democratic majority is prepared to act like a majority. Awww.

Frankly, I think this should have happened long ago. Once again, class: the Republican definition of "bipartisan" is "do it our way."