Word: filibusterer
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The political fate of Miguel Estrada, nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals, is currently very much in question, thanks to a filibuster by increasingly immovable Senate Democrats, who refuse to allow Estrada's name to come up for a vote, in part because the White House...
The Democrats wasted no time hunkering down into traditional filibuster mode, in which one party holds the floor as long as they can in order to prevent a vote on a nominee or issue. Sixty votes are required to stop a filibuster. By Wednesday, February, 12th, less than 36 hours...
The history of the filibuster The word "filibuster" comes from the Dutch word meaning "pirate." Members of the U.S. Senate have pirated debate for as long as the institution has existed. Initially, House members were permitted to filibuster as well, but their growing numbers soon made the practice inadvisable. In...
The first modern filibuster Although the practice has been popular in the Senate since the 19th century, it wasn't until1919 that the Senate engaged in the modern terms of filibuster warfare. When a filibuster held up a vote on the Treaty of Versailles, the Senate invoked a two-thirds...
Famous filibusters In 1841, Henry Clay proposed a bank bill that was met with great disdain by his Democratic colleagues, who launched a filibuster. Until his departure from the Senate in 1932, Louisiana's Huey Long spent many hours - 15 hours, on one occasion - pontificating on nothing in particular (he...