The key actions recommended in an article by Steve Benen in The Washington Monthly:

* Start using the phrase "up-or-down vote" all the time. If Republicans had a dominant governing majority, and a failed Dem minority prevented Congress from functioning, the apoplexy would be overwhelming. Americans would hear about the obstructionism constantly. There would, in all likelihood, be organized marches on Washington. Put simply, I'd like Democratic leaders to think about what Republicans would do if the situations were completely reversed. Then they should do that. Americans would be outraged if they had any idea what the GOP has been doing -- maybe someone should tell them.

* Take advantage of every opportunity. Using reconciliation as much as humanly possible should be a no-brainer. The "nuclear option" should be put on the table, too. Endorse Harkin/Shaheen. Scour the rules and procedural minutiae and figure out if Republicans who want to filibuster can't be forced to literally do so. Search for GOP statesmen -- Lugar? -- and ask if they're really willing to destroy the workings of the United States Senate.

* Go on the offensive. Organize rallies in Maine and explain that Olympia Snowe, by endorsing her party's obstructionism, is single-handedly responsible for the fact that Congress can't function, and it's within her power to put things right and let key bills get up-or-down votes.

* Give voters who elected Democrats something to be excited about. Voters will be impressed with accomplishments, so maybe it'd be wise to give them some. Dems can start by passing the damn health care reform package.

It's not too late. Finish health care. Pass a jobs bill. Go after irresponsible banks. Bring some safeguards to Wall Street. Fix student loans. Pass an energy bill. Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." This not a fanciful wish-list; it's all entirely feasible.

Democrats were elected to do exactly this. It's time to prove that elections have consequences -- whether those who lose the elections like it or not.

Out here in the hinterlands, we can still dream - Stash

If our current political parties aren't content with the system "as is" they would have changed it a long time ago. Fact is, they apparently like it the way it is.

I agree with this to a point. The point being: "The system" has never been like this before when it comes to stagnation and an essentially, universal filibuster. Both parties have filibustered certain items in the past, but the GOP, lacking anything to be "for" is doubling down on being "against" everything. They are hoping the masses can't see they have nothing to offer and are hoping they can point to the lack of action as an example of "the people rejecting Democratic proposals.

With an enept Democratic leadership in Congress, this has a slight chance of success. I'm still hopeful the Democrats will grow a spine and start kicking Republican asses for the empty vessels and one-trick ponies ("Ooo... the roof is leaking. Better cut taxes!") they have become.

If they don't, the Republicans deserve to win.

How the system is used may, from time to time, differ between political parties, but the system itself has not changed. It could be changed if they wanted to change it, but I think they basically like it the way it is.

Don't forget that Congress is the opposite of Progress.

Apparently Sen Bayh seems to agree.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1134

"In an interview on MSNBC this morning, newly retiring Sen. Evan Bayh declared the American political system "dysfunctional," riddled with "brain-dead partisanship" and permanent campaigning. Flatly denying any possibility that he'd seek the presidency or any other higher office, Bayh argued that the American people needed to deliver a "shock" to Congress by voting incumbents out in mass and replacing them with people interested in reforming the process and governing for the good of the people, rather than deep-pocketed special-interest groups."

And also Barney Frank...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_re_us/us_frank_biography

AMHERST, Mass. – U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts said Tuesday that Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh is right that partisan politics on Capitol Hill are getting out of control, but Frank said his fellow Democrat could do more to change that by staying in Congress than by stepping out of politics.

But partisanship was a theme to which he returned again and again, saying he believes a clear shift began under Republican Newt Gingrich's tenure as House speaker in the second half of the 1990s.

Before that, he said, Democrats and Republicans could disagree but remain cordial and work toward compromise. Now, though, the pressure to please the party's base to win primary elections has spawned a Congress in which the sides are "very ideologically differentiated," he said.

He believes that's also evident in the electorate, in which the most ardent liberals and conservatives are getting their news from such different sources that they often seem to be discussing completely different topics.

"People are almost in a parallel universe. They are not getting a common set of facts and most of the people they talk to are those who agree with them," Frank said.

Bayh also bleated that he is more of an executive than a legislator.

I think Bayh is quitting (and I think the Senate will be better off without him) because he just doesn't receive the media attention he craves. The local political media will report every fart emitted by a governor, likewise the national political media relative to the president.

Bayh purposefully cast his political persona as a centrist, without bedrock principles upon which he was willing to risk his political future, quite in contrast to his father, the great Sen. Birch Bayh. In other words he cast himself as bland and uninteresting.

The guy is a talking hairdo, thus qualifying him for a job as a TV snews anchorperson.

Here's Bayh earlier relative to Obama's budget proposal.



Vaya con huevos Bayh.

You are a little tougher on him than I am. His statement that if he could create one job in the private section that would be one more than the Senate has created in the last six months rings pretty true to me. The point is that the Congress is not getting things done when they really should be.



I think the whole party is surrendering. They either quit fighting for the things they believe in to get re-elected or they quit because they are disgusted with the process.



We will soon find out if the Democrats even deserve a chance at re=election or if they and their president even have a spine.

Bayh timed his announcement too late for any democrats to collect the necessary signatures to secure a place on a primary ballot. IN democratic party officials will select the candidate to run for the now open seat. So Bayh will be anointing the candidate.

The move, I suppose, improves democrats' chances of holding onto the seat.

Bayh is not the only one commenting on the problem of a government that cannot get anything done:



As I see it the roots of this dysfunctional government starts with a no-strings bailout of banks who continue to rape the system, a deficit that is hovering in the stratosphere with no responsible body to deal with it and health care that threatens to take our debt from the stratosphere into outer space. Republicans were not courted by their Democrat counterparts and what could be more natural than for that powerless party to point out loudly the things they disagree with. Conservatives are disgusted. The voters are looking for leadership not infighting.

As for the politicians themselves, if you want your job so badly that you fail to do your job for fear of not being re-elected, you don't deserve it. That statement goes for both parties.

Echoing Biden, get something going.

Senator Bayh is selective in his criticism and/or praise for government spending:



I suspect the "one private sector job" he'll create will be his own... as a lobbyist.

Deserves repeating.

"We are at a point right now where it doesn’t make a damn whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican if you’ve forgotten you’re an American."

FORMER SENATOR ALAN K. SIMPSON, Republican of Wyoming, lamenting Washington’s lack of political will to confront the soaring national debt.

I always enjoyed Alan Simpson on the Sunday talk show circut. I am pleased he agreed to co-chair the President's Deficit Commission.

I know it sounds partisan..., and I am unabashedly and unapologetically partisan..., but the President created the Defict Commission by Executive Order because as legislation, it was filibustered by the Republicans who had proposed and supported the idea until the President came out supporting it.

Odd times.

I think every state should have a republican and a democrat in key offices so that we, the citizens of the state, can tell those obstructing needed legislation to straighten up. In the state of Washington who can you talk to? If you are Democrat all the way, you only get to talk to Democrats.

So, I put all of these problems on you who are unapologetically partisan.

I disagreed with Jim Buck on many issues. I supported his opponent. But, I could always have a civil conversation with him and work with him on issues about which we agreed. Some partisans, even unapologetic ones, can talk to all sides.