Thanks to House Republicans, Tom Friedman writes on this page, Churchill's famous claim the "we can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities" no longer applies.
But at the same time as representatives are disproving Churchill's claim, senators are reaffirming it. Tuesday brought the latest example as a bipartisan group reached a last-minute deal to save key aspects of the Senate filibuster.
The deal is notable in its own right. By compromising on a weak or unpopular use of the filibuster -- namely, delaying the president's executive appointments -- the Senate protected the rule's more important uses, which are to ensure supermajority support of judicial nominations and major legislation.
Such practices pull governance in Washington toward the center even as partisan majorities come and go.
But the deal also is notable for North Dakotans, because it's another chapter in Republican Sen. John Hoeven's emergence on the national stage.
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Hoeven is among the handful of Senate Republicans who joined with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to broker the deal, news stories report.
Hoeven, McCain and the others also had acted recently to forge agreement on the immigration-reform bill. That's the story behind this headline Wednesday in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news source:
"A new governing majority in the Senate?" the headline asked.
"A loose governing coalition appears to be emerging, with roughly a third of the Senate's Republicans joining nearly every Democrat in various deals to avert the 'nuclear option' and pass the immigration overhaul -- and, down the line, potentially avert a budget crisis," the story reported.
Politico.com picked up the theme.
As the relationship between the Senate's majority and minority leaders has deteriorated, "a new band of GOP senators led by McCain has stepped in to fill the void," Politico reported.
"The bloc of GOP senators could emerge as crucial deal makers as the Senate and White House move onto budget battles in the fall."
These stories and others all noted Hoeven's role.
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Geographically, North Dakota links progressive Minnesota with the more conservative West, and the state's unique status -- in which Republican-led government runs a state bank and state mill-and-elevator, among other seeming discordancies -- strengthens the bridge.
It's a trait that comes in handy when bipartisan agreements need to be forged. And it's great to see Hoeven stepping forward to fill that role.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
