Paragraph of the Day

Joe Conason:

...the Senate is not apportioned according to population and, in the absence of preventive instruments such as the filibuster, can easily enforce a true tyranny of the minority. At this point, the 26 senators from the nation's smallest states could enforce their will in the Senate with 52 votes, even though they represent less than 20 percent of the nation's population. The 44 Democratic senators represent several million more Americans than their 55 Republican colleagues. And in the 2004 elections, Democratic Senate candidates received about 3 million more total votes than Republican Senate candidates -- even though Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate itself.