Dems originally made gratuitous use of the filibuster

Apparently filibusters were rarely used in the Senate's history until fairly recently.

"The biggest change came during the 2005-06 session of Congress when Democrats ramped up use of the filibuster. The party controlled 45 seats and sensed the tactic could spur political gains in 2006. Democrats threatened or used filibusters on a wide variety of issues, including legislation affecting campaign finance, abortion, war spending, the Patriot Act, and the nominations of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and Dirk Kempthorne as Interior Secretary." (McClatchy Newspapers in today's Yahoo, Feb 16)

So the article establishes that Democrats were first to make egregious use of the filibuster. And yet, it quotes Norman Ornstein, who is apparently oblivious to this history, as saying "Republicans have ratcheted use of the filibuster up to completely unheard of levels."

Unheard of levels?

"The Senate took a record 112 votes to cut off debate in the 2007-08 session [when the Dems were filibustering everything], about 18 percent of all Senate votes." The current Congress is on a somewhat slower pace; so far, the 42 votes are about 10 percent of the total."

And who is this Ornstein anyway? I always remembered him as a liberal op-ed writer in the Washington Post and other left-leaning newspapers. Indeed, Wikipedia describes him as a liberal. But the article says he is "an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right policy organization."

Center-right? I wish the media would describe the AEI and others of the same ilk more accurately: as NEOCON institutions.

NEOCONs tend to be conservative in money matters and the military only, while as liberal as the liberals, if not more, on social issues. I don't think of NEOCONs as looking after the interests of regular middle-class white Americans.

So anyway, in order to sound impartial in criticizing Republicans, the article quotes a "center-right" think tank which would actually be better described as a NEOCON [Read: quasi-liberal] think tank, and if that weren't bad enough, it goes to one of the think tank's few self-avowed liberals - a Norman Ornstein - for comment. Swell.

It's amazing how even when the media manages to get the facts right [for example, that Dems were actually the ones who broke precedent in making unrestrained used of the filibuster], it still puts just the right spin on things to make sure conservatives/Republicans look bad.