In health-care deliberations, Senate is a surreal world

By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 19, 2009

Midnight sessions. Testiness. Rancor. Collegial courtesies obliterated. Clerks forced to read gobbledygook legislation for hours on end as the clock ticks toward Christmas.

So goes the debate on health-care reform in an institution that boasts of being the world's greatest deliberative body. Certainly it's one of the quirkiest, governed by rules and procedures of antediluvian vintage.

The Democrats had long dreamed of having a filibuster-proof "supermajority" of 60 votes. Under Senate rules, 60 votes will be needed to close debate and then have a final yea or nay on the health-care reform bill. There are currently 58 Democrats and two independents who caucus with them.

But life at 60 has been awkward for the Democrats. The supermajority is super-fragile. That number 60 keeps toggling toward 59 as individual senators threaten to go rogue unless their demands are met.

(More here.)