Fordham Law  Un-Corrupting Congress: A System-Changing Solution
Zephyr Teachout in MyFDL (FireDogLake), February 04, 2013  Media
Source  Last week, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) abruptly
announced his intention to retire from the Senate in 2014, on
the heels of Harry Reid’s failure to get the two parties to
agree to reform the Senate’s notorious filibuster after the 2012
election.  According to Harkin, the failure of filibuster reform
will make it “virtually impossible” for Obama to carry out his
vision for his second term.  Even after a $6.5 billion election
cycle, the new Congress is so little changed that it will most
likely continue the partisan gridlock that has long prevented it
from addressing the urgent crises facing the nation.  Failure to
reform the filibuster, and scant Congressional turnover,
however, are just tips of the iceberg when it comes to the
fundamental problem I think we are facing: the systemic failure
of the nation’s governing institutions to govern in the public
interest.  The reasons