Mr. Obama is Dragged to Washington by Activist Liberals! 135 Days to Go!

Most of the public's knowledge (or lack thereof) of the filibuster comes from watching the movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In this classic film, Jimmy Stewart plays a man appointed to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy, who comes face to face with political corruption.

The movie's triumphant climax features Jefferson Smith (Stewart) filibustering dramatically on the floor of the Senate; he cries, "I find that if I yield only for a question or a point of order or a personal privilege, that I can hold this floor almost until doomsday. In other words, I've got a piece to speak, and blow hot or cold, I'm going to speak it."

As his filibuster drags on, and Smith's voice becomes hoarse, he urges his colleagues, "Just get up off the ground, that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won't just see scenery; you'll see the whole parade of what Man's carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so's he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh, if that's what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we'd better get those boys' camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it's not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!"

Few movies wow their audiences with dramatic political intrigue. Fewer still do so without adding in some explosions and violence towards the end (get to the 1:45 mark in the linked video to appreciate this comment). But this classic movie generally causes the filibuster to be considered a heroic act of political idealism.

Let's set the record straight on filibustering. Our federal government allows filibustering by a Senator (and only in the Senate) as long as they do not yield the floor, and the filibuster can only be forced to an end if 60 Senators (3/5) vote to do so. Surprisingly, current Senate rules do not force a Senator to continuously speak on the floor if he/she wishes to filibuster. Now, one must only indicate that they are filibustering, and this prevents the Senate from moving on to other business until 60 Senators vote for cloture. The ability for a super-majority to end a filibuster only was created in 1917, with Senate rule 22, at President Woodrow Wilson's request (at the time, it required a 2/3 vote for cloture). Before this rule, filibustering practices had gotten out of hand; in the 46 years following Rule 22, only 5 clotures were voted for, so the rule did not have too much effect.

In the 1960s, Southern Democrats filibustered and delayed several important pieces of civil rights legislation, and so in 1975 the Democrat-controlled Senate voted to limit the necessary number of Senators to end debate to 60 (down from 67). However, the filibuster remained an important safeguard for the minority party in the Senate to control their Congress. Strom Thurmond (then D) set the filibustering record of 24 hours and 18 minutes against the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

The filibuster has been used much more in recent years, probably as Congressmen decided that their constituents wouldn't notice the shifty political maneuvering going on in the Capitol. In the 1960s, no Senate term had more than 7 filibusters. In this decade, no Senate term has had fewer than 49. Increasingly, filibustering itself has become a political issue...

In 2005, Democratic leaders in the Senate threatened to filibuster several of President Bush's judicial appointments, notably Priscilla Owen, because they were, well, crazy. To deal with those crazy, minority Democrats, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R) proposed to enact legislation to end the filibustering of judicial nominees. This proposal became known as the Nuclear Option.

On May 23rd, a group of 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans rode to the rescue, led by John McCain (R-AZ) and Ben (no Bill, no Ben) Nelson (D-NE), calling themselves the Gang of 14. Agreeing that limiting the filibuster rules would be a blow to democracy, these centrists came to a compromise. The Democrats agreed to let three of the controversial nominees through, and to only filibuster future judicial appointments in "extraordinary circumstances" (John Kerry tried to filibuster Justice Alito's nomination, but failed because no one else thought Alito was that extraordinary). The Republicans agreed to prevent changing the Senate rules (which only required a majority), and to protect the filibuster rule.

So what does all of this have to do with our election this year? Well, several months ago, long before he was a serious contender for the White House, Barack Obama made a promise to MoveOn.org: he would support Chris Dodd's proposed filibustering of any bill that grants retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies involved in the illegal wiretapping of American's phones. Well, this issue has come all the way around. House Democrats passed the bill on Friday, complete with the provision to give a "get-out-of-jail-free card to phone companies." Obama declared that he opposes the idea, and will "work in the Senate to remove this provision." Unfortunately, this isn't good enough for MoveOn.org. They're calling on all their members to pressure Obama to honor his pledge. We'll see how this plays out in the Senate, but I think filibustering is a fascinating topic, so I wanted to devote this post to laying out the background behind it.

Other News of the Day:

--> NBC News announced that Tom Brokaw will become the temporary host of Meet the Press until after the November election. This is the right move - finding a permanent replacement for Russert is going to be quite difficult, and a seasoned hand like Brokaw will keep the show relevant until a new host can be found.

--> Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) announced that he strongly opposes Senator Nunn serving as Obama's running mate, based on Nunn's perceived hostility towards gays. Frank is probably concerned that Nunn will ban him from serving in Congress, so I really don't blame him. In all seriousness, this is a major problem for Nunn, and Obama could very well be making a huge mistake if he takes Nunn onto the ticket.

I hope the weekend treated you all well. I'll hopefully be back tomorrow.