Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about the new Senate, Thune, the filibuster, and nominations.

Yesterday was all about the House and the typical Republican shenanigans, so much so that it kind of

overshadowed the developments over on the other side of Capitol Hill

in the Senate. Senator Thune, now Senate Majority Leader Thune, kicked off the new session.

Thune is taking over from Senator Mitch McConnell. Thune started off his tenure by making

some promises and interesting statements. He started off his tenure

as Senate Majority Leader by promising to keep and protect the filibuster. He showed his institutionalist

credentials by saying that his top priority was to quote, ensure the Senate stays the Senate. That means he doesn't want to see it

devolve to the level of discord in the House. He said that pretty bluntly, saying, quote,

there are a lot of people out there who would like to see the Senate turn into a copy of the House

of Representatives,

and that is not what our founders intended, or what our country needs.

He sang the praises of the filibuster, and short of using the phrase, the most deliberative body

in the world, it could have been words coming from McConnell. For those who need a

refresher, the filibuster is a mechanism in the Senate that, in effect, makes most legislation

needs 60 votes, instead of a simple majority. Thune, coming out early on and saying the Senate

was keeping it, will anger some Republicans

on the fringe, but will make most Republicans breathe a sigh of relief. Democrats are probably

pretty happy about the statement as well. Thune is voluntarily making his job harder to preserve the institution of the Senate because Republicans only have 53 seats.

On top of the filibuster news, Thune also gave us a peek into the Senate's thoughts on Trump's nominees.

He said, quote, we don't have at this point, I don't think, clarity on that.

I think these are nominees who are new enough. They've been going around and conducting their meetings,

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