Kevin Drum is on a roll today. Here’s the money point:

That’s about the size of it. Today’s New York Times explains Mitch McConnell’s “nyet” strategy for making sure that nothing gets done

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But why does the media have to play along? It’s nice that the Times ran this story, but it would be nicer if the media simply reported what was happening on a regular basis. I’m not asking for special treatment, just headlines that tell us what’s really going on. If Republicans have adopted a strategy of simply blocking every piece of legislation that makes it to the floor of the Senate — and everyone agrees that they have — then we should be regularly seeing headlines that say “Republicans Block ______ ” There’s nothing partisan about this, it’s just a description of what’s happening. If Democrats block things, they can say that too. But unless the press reports this stuff accurately on a regular basis, the public simply has no idea why nothing is getting done.

The Times story relates the tale of one bill where the Democrats gave up and gave the Republicans what they wanted on that legislation and the Republicans reflexively blocked it before realizing what they did. That’s the state we’re in, but you wouldn’t know that from watching the news or reading the paper.