This week’s thoughts on the slow death of the republic

Nukes Mean Fallout, Harry

Harry Reid’s removal of the filibuster for confirmation of executive nominees and most judges yesterday, also known as “the nuclear option,” was head-spinningly hypocritical, not to mention short-sighted and unbelievably destructive. It was a bad idea in 2005, and it’s a bad idea now. The U.S. Senate has not been a healthy body in some time, but this fast-tracks it to being essentially a functional clone of the House. How “deliberative” of you, Senator Reid. This stands an excellent chance of being your ultimate legacy, and it is truly a shameful one.

Some folks who aren’t thinking it all the way through are saying things like “well, when the Republicans again have a majority, they can reinstate the filibuster rules.” That is political fantasy. The Democrats have now demonstrated that they will ignore such rules when they are sufficiently inconvenient. Therefore, the Republicans have no choice but to claim the same power, else they’re permanently hamstrung. It takes 60 for Republicans, but 51 for Democrats? We’ll just keep it that way, in the spirit of patriotism (or whatever)? Riiiight.

If You Like Your Money…

As for the Prevaricating Teleprompter’s signature “accomplishment,” things are humming right along, thank you. We learned this week that a large part of the payment infrastructure for HealthCare.gov is not even built yet. This morning we learned that the start of next year’s enrollment period has been pushed from October 15, 2014 to November 15. October 15 is before Election Day. November 15 is after Election Day. See how that works?

It’s. The. Law.

Camelot, 50 Years Later

Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Most of what I have read about it has made me angry, and I was planning to avoid all mention of it on BoWilliams.com. Now that I’ve deviated from that plan, I offer that the Kennedy presidency has benefited from more revisionism than perhaps any other single event in American history. President Kennedy believed, articulated, and in many cases put into motion, some great things. He also set the United States on some unambiguously terrible courses. Accurately assessing his impact requires honesty about both. I’ll just leave it at that.

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