NY TIMES: Democracy Returns to the Senate

[Coyotl]

3. Three Charts Explain Why Democrats Went Nuclear on the Filibuster

Three Charts Explain Why Democrats Went Nuclear on the Filibuster
—By Kevin Drum and Jaeah Lee
Nov. 22, 2013 - http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/11/charts-explain-why-democrats-went-nuclear-filibuster

No one has completely clean hands when it comes to filibusters in the Senate. Democrats have used them and Republicans have used them. But hoo boy, Republicans sure have used them more. That's why Democrats went nuclear on Thursday. Three charts tell the story.

The first two charts show the evolution of filibusters by presidential administration. As you can see, their use rose steadily through the 80s and then leveled off starting around 1990. Democrats mainly kept things pretty stable throughout the Bush administration, increasing the number of filibusters only in his last two years when a change of power seemed imminent. When Obama took over, however, there was no honeymoon, not even for a minute. Republicans went into full-bore filibuster mode the day he took office, and they've kept it up ever since. For all practical purposes, anything more controversial than renaming a post office has required 60 votes during the entire Obama presidency.

...........