Democrats could have filibustered Mukasey if they wanted

If I could write the rules, I would make seniority work against lawmakers.  The less years you spend in Congress, the higher committee rank you get.  It would discourage legislators from staying in Washington -- because the longer you stay, the more your power diminishes.

Of course, that is not how things work.  Seniority is an asset that lawmakers use to convince voters to reelect them.  Once reelected, those same lawmakers take their laundry list of promises, set them on fire and protect the status quo of broken government.

As a matter of principle, you cannot alter the status quo without showing some spine.  On Thursday, by failing to filibuster the nomination of Michael Mukasey, Democrats showed no spine, no desire for change and no inability to fulfill a promise made to voters one year ago:

The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general Thursday night, approving him despite Democraticcriticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against thetorture of terrorism detainees.

The 53-to-40 vote made Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge, the thirdperson to head the Justice Department during the tenure of PresidentBush, placing him in charge of an agency that members of both partiessay suffered under the leadership of Alberto Gonzales.

Six Democrats joined 46 Republicans and one independent in approvingthe judge, with his backers praising him as a strong choice to restoremorale at the Justice Department and independently oversee federalprosecutions in the final months of the Bush administration.

Sixty votes are needed to end debate and force a vote on the nomination.  There were not 60 'yea' votes present, meaning that many who even opposed Mukasey voted for cloture.  Where was their spine?  We all know that if it were the Republicans in our shoes, they would have had the courage to block the nomination.

This is why seniority rules hurt democracy -- nothing gets done, and the status quo is protected.

Oh, and by the way, I hope Connecticut voters are happy.  Republicans like him so much that they allotted him five minutes of time to speak on their behalf about Mukasey: