Advice and consensus?

The threat of removing the rule permitting unlimited debate is a threat to the very elegant nature of our Senate, which for so long has famously served as a cooling saucer to the oft-boiling brew that is the House of Representatives.

The fact that our founding fathers allocated two senators to every state despite enormous differences in population shows exactly what they intended -- to give the minority protection from an overreaching majority.

Both "consent" and "consensus" trace back to one Latin word, consentire, with but one definition in the American Heritage Dictionary, "to feel together"; I've no doubt, therefore, that the instruction in the Constitution requiring the "advice and consent of the Senate" contemplated consensus, and indeed consensus was the practice for over 130 years!

Americans who cherish the special democracy that we enjoy should stand squarely against the "nuclear option" and in favor of open debate.