At what point does the Senate finally get sick of itself? After four years of putting up with them, even their erstwhile allies in the House have tired of the Upper Chamber’s pointless, chest-thumping gestures. It must be exhausting to blast another doomed bill through the chamber every week or so.

I really don’t know why they do it. The pattern of failure is unmistakable, yet they keep coming back for more. Consider the case of sales taxes. House leaders (ignoring the Governor, like they do) have repeatedly said they won’t take up sales-tax redistribution. Yet the Senate just rammed through another iteration of its geographical spoils-claiming scheme, calling it a “compromise.” News flash: Something cannot be a compromise if there is no competing proposal with which to…compromise. Why bull ahead anyway?

Well, they are drunk on ideology–and the intoxicated aren’t known for self-control. As Chris Fitzsimon observed, Bob Rucho “just can’t seem to help himself” from proposing more tax cuts. The Senate is on a mission to redefine the public life of ten million people. I guess under those circumstances you lose sight of, or interest in, reality.

Still, you’d think that operant conditioning would intervene. Pass a completely crazy bill, the Senate’s subconscious would say, and the House rejects it; pass a moderately less crazy bill, and it goes through. Tone it down. The Senate is just amazingly resistant to this message.

But let me end on a complimentary note. Working through the night, executing endless blitzkriegs: It all seems very tiring, at least to me. Great conservatives like Thatcher and Churchill were different. They stayed up till the wee hours benignly tormenting their colleagues. Sound familiar? Maybe, like them, Rucho really is a titan after all.

Alexander H. Jones

Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.