Citizens on the political right: Please spare us your outrage. After all:
When Republican senators in Washington block legislation by threatening to filibuster or putting a hold on a bill, that is, by their own reckoning, all well and good and a proper exercise of the rights that the political process and our democratic society allows.
But when Democratic senators in Madison block legislation through the figurative equivalent of a filibuster, that's bad! Bad!
You see, Republicans are entitled to obstructionism and the use of any legislative body's chamber procedures to avoid a vote. Whenever they like, and as often as they like. Which is why Obama's judicial nominations -- like Clinton's -- are by the hundreds wallowing in limbo, and why it often takes 67 percent of the vote in the US Senate to accomplish stuff, when Americans were brought up on the notion that 50 percent plus one vote is the standard.
But, you see, when it's the Democrats in the minority, none of these tactics are legitimate. Only The GOP Chosen have a right to obstruct. Only The GOP Chosen have the right to ram legislation through at light speed, without understanding it. Only The GOP Chosen are rightful rulers. If the Democratic Party held 100 percent minus one of the seats in the US Senate, that would still constitute a minority, as far as the Republican Party is concerned.
Republicans should get their talking points straight. They won't be able to adjust their ideology to maintain both these views, however, because their ideology often dispenses with logic and fact in favor of emotion and sheer faith.
And that's the way it is tonight in Madison, Wisconsin, and probable points south.