Don't whine, Sen. Feinstein
by David Atkins
The already incredibly watered-down gun background checks proposal has "failed" by a 54-46 margin, missing the automatic filibuster threshold by six votes.
There are already a number of Democratic Senators complaining about the Republicans' corruption and extremist intransigence. That's fine insofar as it goes, but it's a case of crocodile tears.
There was an opportunity at the beginning the session to change the rules to prevent Republicans from blocking a vote with only 46 Senators, without even needing to hold the floor making speeches to defend standing against 90% of the American public. Senators Reid and Feinstein were among those who refused to make that change.
They knew when they kept the Senate rules as is that this sort of thing would almost certainly happen. And it has.
So no whining. They had an opportunity to fix this, and they didn't.
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