THE DEMOCRATS’ FILIBUSTER SCHEME. Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in a pre-taped interview on NBC’s Meet the Press last weekend. As is often the case with her interviews, Harris said a few awkward, ill-informed, or downright odd things. For example, she claimed that the U.S.-Mexico border is “secure.” When asked if she was confident of that, Harris answered, “We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.” It’s hard to figure out what that meant.
The most newsworthy thing Harris said concerned the state of the Senate filibuster. Democrats have been in control of the Senate since the 2020 election, but with a 50-50 tie, they do not control a majority of seats. Their margin of control is the vice president’s tiebreaking vote. But even to get to that point on a partisan measure, Democrats have to unite all 50 of their senators. That has been difficult when two centrist Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, sometimes declined to go along with their colleagues.
