Filibuster, The New Normal

You apparently now need 60 votes in the Senate to pass any legislation. It's not an extraordinary circumstance, it's not silencing the will of the majority, it's just the way things work. Here's a handy chart to show just how unusual this is.



The GOP has by now already come close to reaching the highest number of filibusters the Democrats ever upheld between 1994 and 2006 in THE ENTIRE TWO-YEAR TERM. Yet, this is just seen by the establishment as just ho-hum, the way the world works.

I don't want to abolish the filibuster, but I want someone to start talking about how unusual and radical it is to filibuster EVERYTHING. And making an example of these clowns by holding extended debate (the cloture motion is filed simply to cut off debate and proceed to a vote, "filibustering" in the modern sense just means voting no on cloture and continuing debate) and forcing the Republicans to defend the denial of habeas corpus, or endless war, would be nice.

UPDATE: This is only going to get worse, by the way, when the new budget fight heats up in October. Bush is already telling cabinet members to reject new funding for their own agencies. We're going to see a lot more GOP obstruction over this as they try to force a government shutdown. Hopefully reporters will do their job on that.