The real history of Filibusters....

As I've said before, I love history. It's an opportunity to see what has happened and many times what is happening right now has been done before. Most times we as humans don't seem to learn lessons from the past so we are doomed to repeat them.

Let's flash back to 1841 for a moment.....

In 1841, when the Democratic minority hoped to block a bank bill promoted by Henry Clay, Clay threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to close debate. Thomas Hart Benton angrily rebuked his colleague, accusing Clay of trying to stifle the Senate's right to unlimited debate.

The term "filibuster," comes from the Spanish filibustero, or freebooter, meaning "pirate." Which is what basically happens, one or more persons "pirates" the floor. There are even rules that outline what can be done during a Filibuster, for instance you can drink water or milk but not eat.

Both republicans and democrats have used the filibuster and when in the majority tried to change the rules for filibusters. The party in power seems to always want to stifle the dissent of the minority. Republicans are now in power, and they seem to have forgotten some of their history. Claims have been made that a filibuster has never been used to stop the appointment of a Judge, not true. Sept. 26, 1968, Washington Post; it said, "A full-dress Republican-led filibuster broke out in the Senate yesterday against a motion to call up the nomination of Justice Abe Fortas for Chief Justice." A New York Times story that day said Fortas's opponents "began a historic filibuster today." As the debate dragged on for four days, news accounts consistently described it as a full-blown filibuster intended to prevent Fortas's confirmation from reaching the floor, where a simple-majority vote would have decided the question. The required number of votes to halt a filibuster then was 67; filibusters can be halted now by 60 of the Senate's 100 members.

So when Bill Frist says, "Never before has a minority blocked a judicial nominee that has majority support for an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor," that's not quite accurate. But he's hoping that you won't know your history. Sorry Bill not all of us are that historically impaired.

If you want to read more, some good articles/sites:

Washington Post article

Slate article

Senate Filibuster History