But sometime after 1993 ? which, by eerie coincidence, was the last time Democrats had a majority in the Senate ? a new rule developed, requiring that the minority party win all contested votes. The Democrats ? the same people the seven mavericks are relying on to play fair now ? began using procedural roadblocks to prevent the majority vote from prevailing by simply preventing votes from taking place at all. Senate Democrats do this by voting not to vote, whereas Texas Democrats do it by simply boarding a Greyhound bus bound for Oklahoma.
Democrats tried "Count All the Votes (Until I Win)" ? Al Gore, 2000. They tried "Vote or Die!" ? P. Diddy, 2004. Those failed, so now the Democrats' motto is: "No Voting!"
The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, thought the party with the most votes should be able to win. (Boy ? talk about out of touch! And this guy wants to be president?)
The seven "maverick" Republicans thought a better idea would be to crawl to the minority party and plead for crumbs. If the "maverick" Republicans had a slogan, it would be: "Always surrender from a position of strength."
The deal they struck, this masterful Peace of Westphalia, simply put into writing the rule that the minority party controls the Senate ? which will remain the rule until the Democrats aren't the minority party anymore.
No wonder Democrats were so testy about bringing democracy to Iraq: They can't bear democracy in America. Liberals' beef with Iraq's new government was that the Sunnis ? the minority sect whose reign of terror controlled Iraq for almost 30 years ? wouldn't be adequately represented. Obviously, this did not bode well for the Democrats ? a minority party whose reign of terror controlled the U.S. House for over 40 years.
The only way for Americans to get some vague semblance of what they voted for is to elect mammoth Republican majorities ? and no "mavericks." (Fortunately, for the sake of civilization and the republic, that process seems to be well under way.)
Chuck Schumer could be the last Democrat in the Senate and the new rule would be: Unanimous votes required for all Senate business. But at least we could count on Sens. Lindsey Graham, Mike DeWine, John McCain, John Warner, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Lincoln Chafee to strike a deal forcing Schumer to agree not to block the 99 other senators except in "extraordinary circumstances."