It use to be that a filibuster involved a senator taking the floor of the Senate and talking continuously in an effort to get a piece of legislation withdrawn from discussion. The record for this tactic still belongs to Strom Thurmond, the former senator from NC. In the 60's he talked for 24 hours and 18 minutes in a failed effort to stop a civil rights law. In preparation for that he "dehydrat(ed) himself in a steam room so he could drink water without urinating". This plan involved aides holding pails for the senator to relieve himself in, or senators "going to the diaper". It seems those days are over. Now a filibuster is "the minority leader announces he has the 41 votes required to block cloture on the unlimited debate allowed in the Senate, and the majority capitulates". "The modern filibuster allows the minority party to obstruct without coming off like obstructionists". If the Senate seats Al Franken from Minnosota and the two independents vote with the democrats the republicans still have 41 votes. During the past election democrats sought a 60 vote Senate in order to block any "filibuster". (As I am posting this I hear that President Obama has offered a cabinet position to a republican senator; that might be an attempt to achieve this "filibuster proof" Senate).
(Source: "Filibuster Bluster, or New Rules For the Senate?" by Lou Dubose editor of The Washington Spectator, February 1, 2009).
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