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Quote 405 of 521

Over the decades, filibusters have done far more harm than good. In
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Jimmy Stewart used one to
save his Boy Rangers camp. In real life, the record is not so pretty.
Absent Senate filibusters, the anti-lynching bills of 1922, 1935, and
1938 would have become law, bringing federal force to bear against
racist violence and possibly allowing the civil-rights movement to
achieve its victories decades earlier; direct election of the
President would have replaced the electoral college in time for the
1972 election; and nearly all Americans would now be covered by a
program of national health insurance. So, Democrats, please: If the
Republicans go nuclear and ban filibusters for judicial nominations,
by all means raise holy hell. But don’t elevate the filibuster
into a moral principle, and when you get back into power—and,
hard as it may be to believe at the moment, that day will
come—get rid of it for everything else, too.

Hendrik Hertzberg, "Comment", <cite>The New
		   Yorker</cite>, 2005-03-14
		   http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/050314ta_talk_hertzberg

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