This is not Lyndon Johnson’s Senate

[eppur_se_muova]

8. In Caro's "Passage of Power", ch. 18 & 19 particularly, he describes how the filibuster ...

was used by conservatives to block almost any kind of progressive legislation. It didn't start in 2008, or 1994, but in FDR's last term in 1944. The Senate has been dysfunctional -- *deliberately* disfunctional -- for much of the 20th Century, and the filibuster is largely to blame.

The filibuster was NOT something created by the Founding Fathers:

In 1789, the first U.S. Senate adopted rules allowing the Senate "to move the previous question", ending debate and proceeding to a vote. Aaron Burr argued that the motion regarding the previous question was redundant, had only been exercised once in the preceding four years, and should be eliminated.[2] In 1806, the Senate agreed, recodifying its rules, and thus the potential for a filibuster sprang into being.[2] Because the Senate created no alternative mechanism for terminating debate, the filibuster became an option for delay and blocking of floor votes.

The filibuster remained a solely theoretical option until the late 1830s. The first Senate filibuster occurred in 1837.[citation needed] In 1841, a defining moment came during debate on a bill to charter the Second Bank of the United States. Senator Henry Clay tried to end debate via majority vote. Senator William R. King threatened a filibuster, saying that Clay "may make his arrangements at his boarding house for the winter". Other senators sided with King, and Clay backed down.[2]



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_in_the_United_States_Senate