the following is an excerpt from Nevada Senator Harry Reid's response to a letter i sent him expressing my serious concerns over the attempt by Frist and Roberts to change the filibuster rules... i hope he is successful in keeping the other dems in the corral and can make his simple and forceful argument as public as possible... no news to the readers of this site that disallowing the filibuster by a simple majority vote is greasing the path toward a complete takeover of the judiciary and the negation of the small remnant of checks and balances remaining in the wake of the r's destructive rampage...
[emphasis mine]
"Thank you for contacting me regarding filibuster rules. I
appreciate hearing from you.
The filibuster - where one or more senators holds the
Senate floor for a prolonged period of debate - is as old as the
Senate itself. It reflects the framers' intent that the Senate be a
more deliberate legislative body than the House of
Representatives. That intent is given effect through a number of
means - including longer senatorial terms and the provision for
unlimited debate. The framers wrote at the time of organizing our
government that the Senate would be the 'saucer to cool the
passions' of the House, and extended debate is one way this is
given effect.
I noted your particular opposition to Senators Bill Frist (R-
TN) and Pat Roberts'(R-KS) proposal to change the filibuster laws
to require only a simple majority vote to be needed to end a
filibuster, rather than the current 60 votes needed. I agree that it
would be a mistake for the rules of the Senate to be changed in this
regard."