[mabelkitty]

"I'm watching on C-Span. What are these Senators doing? They're standing around talking to each other like they're at a cocktail party. If I was in the Senate, I would be seething. No other Senator would dare talk to me else they would need the Sergeant at Arms to restrain me from wrecking the whole chambers."

You've nailed it - that's the way the Senate is set up. It was never to be a scrappy partisan body. It was supposed to be deliberative and collegial. Clinton poisoned it.

That's why Daschle defended Lott's remarks at Thurman's birthday party right away - they are all cordial at the end of the day. Bizarre, isn't it?

The vote was for our benefit. If they go behind the scenes to finish it up, then both sides are saving face.

[Steven W.]

It was poisoned long before Clinton ... the problems just became aggravated during that period. The underlying problem is that Senators were constitutionally appointed by governors in their home states, not elected, to prevent political partisanship from entering the fray and to ensure the body remained deliberative.