A ‘moderate’ filibuster? Killing it would still be better

West Virginia’s Joe Manchin set some hearts aflutter over the weekend when he went on the TV talk shows to say he’s open to reforming the Senate filibuster by at least making it more difficult to conduct one. One presumes he has in mind the climactic scene in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” when Jimmy Stewart successfully held the floor of the U.S. Senate all by himself causing his guilt-ridden nemesis to eventually confess wrongdoing. Senate filibusters aren’t conducted like around-the-clock marathons anymore, and that was a movie.