Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, and former Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Edgar join “Viewpoint” host Eliot Spitzer to discuss the possibility of filibuster reform in the Senate.
Spitzer calls the reforms suggested by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “thin soup” and wonders why Reid can’t muster the 67 votes — a two-thirds majority — needed to pass these minor changes.
Reid’s proposal allows for “the filibuster to be weakened, but not done away with,” Edgar says. He and Brennan explain why they are for a more direct “nuclear option” to turn filibusters back into the seldom-used talk-a-thons of yore, as featured in the classic Jimmy Stewart film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
