Political Wire: Which party stands to lose the most from a Senate filibuster showdown?Tommorrow, we'll ask Shapiro for his views on the Bush administration's second term.
Shapiro: "If Bill Frist indeed knows how to count votes and the nuclear option is successfully detonated, the Democrats are likely to be the short-term losers during a period that extends through the Senate vote on Rehnquist's successor. For there is just no way for the Democrats to look high-minded while they are employing obstructionist tactics to get even for loss of the filibuster. But, ultimately, it is hard not to see this as a Pyrrhic victory for Senate Republicans. Not only will the next Democratic president be giggling at GOP folly when she or he starts nominating federal judges in 2009 or 2013, but also if the filibuster is eliminated for judges, it will be philosophically hard to maintain it for legislation. So unless the Democrats completely abandon their belief in activist government in a new bout of triangulation, the Republicans will someday loudly lament losing a major procedural weapon the next time a president tries to provide health care for the uninsured. But then I'm old enough to remember the 1960s and 1970s when eliminating the filibuster was a litmus test of liberal faith."
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
