As someone who has followed politics closely since 1993, I've grown to really despise the filibuster, especially in the hands of the Republican party. They shut down the Senate during Bill Clinton's first two years in office, then ran against a "do-nothing" Congress in 1994. They are trying to do the same thing right now to Barack Obama.
And you know who is finally starting to get a little pissed off about it? That's right -- President Barack Obama:
"[A]s somebody who served in the Senate, who values the traditions of the Senate, who thinks that institution has been the world's greatest deliberative body, to see the filibuster rule, which imposes a 60-vote supermajority on legislation - to see that invoked on every single piece of legislation, during the course of this year, is unheard of," says President Obama in a yet-to-air interview with PBS.
Let's hope he keeps it up on this topic. Because if this kind of obstruction continues, the Nuclear Option will have to be on the table.
Check out this chart from Norman Ornstein:
Look how often the GOP filibustered while George W. Bush was still president. The number of filibusters has continued at a record-setting pace in the 2009-2010 session. As Matt Yglesias, James Fallows, Paul Krugman and others have said, the abuse of the filibuster has become a threat not just to efficiency and good governance, but to democracy itself.
It's a relief to hear that Barack Obama is finally sounding fed up about it.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I mean, if you look historically back in the '50s, the '60s, the '70s, the '80s - even when there was sharp political disagreements, when the Democrats were in control for example and Ronald Reagan was president - you didn't see even routine items subject to the 60-vote rule.
So I think that if this pattern continues, you're going to see an inability on the part of America to deal with big problems in a very competitive world, and other countries are going to start running circles around us. We're going to have to return to some sense that governance is more important than politics inside the Senate. We're not there right now.
MR. LEHRER: Is there anything you can do about this as president of the United States? Isn't it a Senate situation?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: It is a - it is a matter of Senate rules. Look, the fact of the matter is, is that if used prudently, then I don't think it's harmful for our democracy. It's not being used prudently right now. And my hope would be that whether a Sen. is in the majority or is in the minority, that they're starting to get a sense, after looking at this year, that this can't be the way that government runs.
And one of the things that I think Democrats and Republicans have to constantly do is try to put themselves in the other person's shoes. If we had a Republican president right now and a Republican-controlled Senate, and Democrats were doing some of these things, they'd be screaming bloody murder. And at some point, you know, I think the American people want to see government solve problems, not just engage in the gamesmanship that has become so customary in Washington.
Let's hope he keeps this up. The sooner we start building a public case for eliminating the filibuster, the better.