National Review on obstructionism in the Senate

The National Review has an excellent piece about the next few weeks in the Senate headlined "The Obstructionists on the Hill; Watch for September’s Senate subplot." Excerpt:

"The Senate is an institution that exemplifies 21st-century politics but operates under 18th-century rules," a former senior GOP leadership aide told me. And when lawmakers return after the August break, most expect the Democrats to use those rules to block just about everything Republicans try to bring up.

But playing in the Democrats' obstructionist orchestra is not without risk. Some voters find the legislative dissonance petty and partisan — and could decide to oust lawmakers who make that kind of music.

So here is an interesting Senate September subplot to watch. Republicans will raise the decibel level about obstructionism, while Democrats will try to find a balance between denying GOP victories while still appearing cooperative.

But who wins this battle depends in part on who really cares about obstructionism in the Senate. Recent polling data from the American Survey, gathered August 19-22 (800 registered voters, margin of error 3.5 percent), sheds some light on this issue — exposing expected, as well as surprising, vulnerabilities for the Democrats.

Overall, a slight majority (54 percent) believe "Democrats engage in obstructionism in the Senate," while 40 percent think they want to "work with Republicans." Voters in each party hold expected attitudes toward the current political environment in the Senate. For example, 79 percent of Republicans think Senate Democrats engaged in obstruction, while only 34 percent of Democrats held that view — not a particularly surprising result.

Independent voters' views are somewhere in the middle. Yet it should trouble Democrats that a majority of these swing voters believe Democrats are engaged in obstruction. 53 percent of independents take that view compared to only 40 percent who say Democrats want to "work with Republicans."

It will be up to Senator Daschle to "find a balance between denying GOP victories while still appearing cooperative." This "Senate subplot" will be on the front burner in South Dakota, and the Dakota Alliance blogs will be scrutinizing every development in this subplot.