The Time Warp

David Broder has a large bucket of cold water to throw on some of the triumphalism and media-moment catch phrase-driven posturing going on right now, especially from the House leadership. The would be a description of the problems the Democrats face in the Senate. Those problems are very real and are not ideological, they are institutional.

So as the role of the minority whip has become easier, the role of the majority whip has become harder. While Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada leads the policy debates and handles the public relations, the onus is on Durbin to produce the votes at critical moments.

Having served in both the House and Senate over 24 years, he understands the differences between them. "The Senate is designed to stop things," he said, and that poses a challenge to ambitious Democrats.

Ask Durbin what will happen when the flood of bills — raising the minimum wage and achieving other Democratic goals — coming out of the House during the ballyhooed "100 hours" reaches the Senate, he laughs and recalls the words of former House speaker Tom Foley to his colleagues: "Remember, the Republicans are the opposition. The enemy is the Senate."

No doubt, Durbin says, House members and perhaps some of the public will be frustrated because "it's going to take us longer, and it will be done differently."

"They will finish their 100 hours with great pride, and then we will begin 100 days," he said.

The role of the Senate was always supposed to be to stop the excesses of potential mob rule by acting exactly as it does - like a brake on the worst excesses. It is not as strong a brake as it was originally designed to be since the elections of Senators was changed to allow popular vote, but that role is still there even if in modified form. But then, even 100 hours becomes something far different in political time since the definition of how long that is keeps changing. Which may actually be part of the strategy for 2008. If they keep redefining that 100 hours, they may be able to use it in their next campaign cycle! "Vote for us, we still have 28 hours left!"