Cillizza: Senate has become more partisan, less collegial — more like the House
The world’s greatest deliberative body has started to look a lot like its legislative little brother over the past few years.
The Senate was once regarded as the home of the great political orators of the time — not to mention the body where true dealmaking actually took place. Its members prided themselves on their cool approach to legislating, in contrast with the more brawling nature of the House. Senators, generally, liked one another — no matter their party — and weren’t afraid to show it, either personally or politically.
No longer. The Senate has undergone a marked transformation, symbolized by increased partisanship, a blockading for the sake of blockading and even some downright personal nastiness.
A few examples:
First, the partisanship. According to a Yahoo’s Chris Wilson, who broke down each senator’s votes cast so far in 2013, 22 Democratic senators have voted the exact same way on every single piece of legislation that has come before the chamber. When examining the senators who have voted together at least 75 percent of the time, Wilson found only two moderates who bridged the middle ground between the two sides: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) are genuine outliers, having voted with no other senator — of either party — at least 75 percent of the time this year.
Then, the blockading. As The Post’s Juliet Eilperin noted in a Fix post last week, there are currently 15 judges nominated by President Obama awaiting votes by the full Senate. Thirteen of the 15 — or roughly 87 percent — of those nominees were approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee. And, even those who get votes often have to wait forever for them. On March 11, for example, the Senate confirmed Richard Taranto for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by a vote of 91 to 0, 484 days after the president nominated him — and he’s far from the only example of that trend.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-has-become-more-partisan-less-collegialmore-like-the-house/2013/04/07/611756de-9f92-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_singlePage.html
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