TWENTY YEARS AGO, KRAUTHAMMER WOULD HAVE ACCUSE SENATE DEMOCRATS OF "WILDING"

Charles Krauthammer on the end of the filibuster:

This was a disgraceful violation of more than two centuries of precedent. If a bare majority can change the fundamental rules that govern an institution, then there are no rules. Senate rules today are whatever the majority decides they are that morning.

What distinguishes an institution from a flash mob is that its rules endure.

A right-winger who uses the phrase "flash mob" is not thinking of a group of people suddenly gathered to perform Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" or reenact the restaurant scene from When Harry Met Sally. Right-wingers who talk about "flash mobs" are talking about scary dark-skinned urban youths with no conscience engaged in violence against decent, upright Americans. When Krauthammer looks at Harry Reid, that's what he sees.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, back in 2005, Krauthammer called the judicial filibuster "the bastard child of Democratic bitterness over recent lost elections" and said that a GOP vote to break it would have been "a profile in courage." And I'm sure I also don't have to tell you that Krauthammer's current fretting over "the rule of law" did not extend to the Bush administration's use of torture and cover-up of same -- back in '07, when we learned that torture tapes were destroyed in violation of the law, he thought that was fine: "I think it was a good faith in destroying the tapes -- yes, because it is not a pretty thing, and you don't want it on You Tube." Well, all right, then.