Senate goes 'nuclear,' Democrats approve changes to filibuster rules

[sofa king]

38. That is an astonishing chart.

At the insignificantly small end of those charts is the 1964 Civil Rights Act filibuster, which lasted for around eight weeks.

It was one of the most important filibusters to be successfully overcome, eventually, when Hubert Humphrey finally outmaneuvered Strom Thurmond and, incongruously in light of his later brilliance in the service of our own side, Robert Byrd, who was already the undisputed heavyweight champion of the filibuster.*

That, apparently, was back when the Senate was playing nice. Horrifying.


* Byrd put that same amazing ability to speak eloquently and at extreme length to full use during those dark days not so long ago when the Bush Administration sought absolute power and Democrats in the Senate only barely managed to check the most malevolent intentions of the Republicans. Perhaps that overwrites his prior filibustering on Civil Rights; I don't pretend to know. He was certainly a complex character who taught Harry Reid most of the procedural trickery that was used today. Because Byrd's remarks over fifty years of service in Congress have been documented and printed in the Congressional Record, I think that also makes him one of the most prolific authors, by word count, in the history of mankind. I'm glad he changed his mind on important things over that time.