I am reading increasing reports about home state, grass roots fall-out from the filibuster deal. This column criticizing Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado and this one about Sen. Lidsey Graham are illustrative. Especially interesting is the difference in perception of the deal back home versus inside the beltway. Consider this passage from The State newspaper in Columbia, SC:
WASHINGTON — In Washington, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham is being lauded for helping pull the U.S. Senate back from the partisan brink of a filibuster crisis.
In South Carolina, the Seneca Republican is trying to control the damage.
“The calls won’t quit, and they’re almost all against Lindsey,” state Republican Party chairman Katon Dawson said.
Dawson counted more than 900 phone calls to party headquarters in 36 hours — mostly from people who helped elevate Graham from the House to the Senate in 2002.
If the deal isn’t playing very well at home, and if pushed to the constitutional/nuclear option eventually, I wonder if the long-term fall-out from the filibuster deal will be to actually increase the size of the majority voting in favor?
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