Tom Maguire, responding to the president’s State of the Union comment about Republicans’ now having acquired the “responsibility to govern” along with their 41 Senate votes, asks, “So when Obama rails against the failed policies of the past eight years, is he running against Pelosi, Reid, Senator Obama, and the rest of the Democrats? I don’t think so.” Presumably the Democrats would respond that the situation has changed because the Democrats employed the filibuster less frequently than Republicans do; Obama’s preceding remarks in the State of the Union address set up that defense.

I guess the question would be whether there was ever a situation in which the Democrats had the votes to filibuster something as big as the stimulus and the health-care legislation but failed to do so on the grounds that it would be wrong. I can’t recall any examples offhand.