Last week, I discussed the provision in the Senate 9/11 bill (S 4) to restore the collective bargaining rights of TSA baggage screeners, and the amendment to be offered by Brer DeMint to strike the provision.

The amendment was defeated.

But my interest here is in how in was defeated, and the effect on the balance of power in the Senate that it illustrates.

There's more...

You'll recall the delicate work LBJ (with the 60 prez election very much in mind) had to do as Maj Leader to pass the 1957 Civil Rights Bill: the civil rights bill with not too many civil rights in it!

Uncle Harry, in LBJ's shoes, is attempting much the same thing with S 1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, which was (in more ways than one) on the floor yesterday.

Reid and McConnell had produced a substitute (SA 3) for the original text (why? the bill was only introduced a week ago), and amendments to the substitute were being debated.

Jim DeMint offered SA 11 which substituted for the SA 3 wording on earmark disclosure the text of the House Rules revision res H Res 6 passed last week.

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A few months back, I started to look at this, but butted up against the problem of not really knowing the rules too good.

That's a work in progress - but it did occur to me to float one way that the GOP might approach minority status in (let's suppose) both houses of the 110th.

Naturally, the ¡No pasarán! strategy is open to them: clearly, the Dems are not going to get any legislation enacted over Bush's veto; and they're unlikely to be able to defeat a properly managed filibuster.

But there are costs to being in-your-face obstructive - the do nothing tag reworked - that, no doubt, the GOP would rather avoid, if possible.

There's more...