Lots of discussion today about the Republicans' record-breaking pace in obstructing Senate business with the filibuster.
Here's the Senate's own official chart on cloture voting that you can use to do your own number crunching, if you're so inclined. It's the same chart I used to figure out that there have already been about as many cloture votes taken during this Congress as there were between World War I and the moon landing.
As you can see, the high water mark in terms of cloture motions filed when Democrats were in the minority was a whopping 82 in the 104th Congress, which is an awful lot! Of course, it comes on the heels of the Republican total of 80 from the 103rd, so I suppose you could call that response in kind. On the other hand, the high water mark in terms of cloture motions filed when Republicans were in the minority is last Congress' record of 139! That's 41% more than the Democrats ever handed them at their absolute worst, and they're on pace to smash that record, too.
The thing I really wanted to add to this discussion is that counting cloture motions filed or even cloture votes taken doesn't really encompass the whole picture. The requisite motions might not even get filed if the leadership thinks they can't get close to the magic number of 60 to invoke cloture, yet that bill will have been filibustered as surely as any other on which there's a cloture vote on record.
Nor does the official tally count what I've been calling "painless filibusters," that is, roll calls on which a 60-vote threshold is agreed to by unanimous consent as a method of cutting short the time it takes to file for, invoke and finalize cloture. Yes, the higher threshold is agreed to ahead of time by everyone, but only because the threat of a "real" filibuster (whatever that even means anymore) forces everyone to accept the "painless" version as the faster path, while leaving the 60-vote hurdle in place just as surely as it would be otherwise.
Every hold left unchallenged and every objection to unanimous consent endured because of the time involved in breaking it can also be attributed to the filibuster, but will never show up in these charts.
So yes, the Republicans are on course to shattering all records for obstructionism. But the costs are much, much higher than the numbers reveal.