re: #147 dangerman-call me sandy, not a drink named Steve

the way the senate is run - essentially by one person, and the house whose speaker (so far) has been elected by less people than the senate majority leader, plus the moronic hastert rule in the house are the major bottlenecks to getting anything done

it was never intended that unless you were the majority party you had absolutely no power to do anything (except filibuster)

This is a relatively recent development, and may have something to do with the parties becoming more ideologically stable. Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats are about as common as the Mammoth these days. As a result there’s less need to bring in members of the minority to help move legislation.