The filibuster is an affront to the most basic principles of democracy, and California's senators should take the lead in getting rid of the tactic.
It's been a maddening year for California liberals. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama carried the state by a stunning 24 points. He took office with a distinctly progressive agenda and with heavy Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. A moment of liberal breakthrough -- another 1935 or 1965 -- seemed at hand. And then . . . nothing happened.
In September, 2009 Atlantic Monthly named 
