Is it a Filibuster or Threat of a Filibuster?

Factual Questions
1

I know there is a debate on this board and in real life about changing the cloture rules on filibusters related to judicial nominees. There are nine nominees not getting a vote due to filibusters. I’ve not noticed a long string of Senators standing on the floor and reading the Oakland Phone Book, Charlotte’s Web, the Internal Revenue Code or Grandma’s Cookie Recipes.

There was some mention on one of the cable news shows about how something had to get done last night because all the Senators leave town Thursday night / Friday morning for the weekend. If everyone is leaving town, no one is holding the floor to stop a vote.

This is just weak.

Questions:

  1. Is the filibuster now something totally different from the Senate web page desciption (or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)?
  2. Is the current hold-up merely the threat of a filibuster?
  3. If it is just the threat, why not force the issue and create a filibuster?
2

It is, indeed, the threat of filibusters (and the failure to invoke cloture so as to defuse the threat of a filibuster) that is at the center of all the current disputes. In general, threats of filibusters since the 1960s have more often than not been dealt with on a two-track system: controversial matters are set aside so that the Senate may continue to work on more routine matters. On occasions, Senate Majority Leaders have decided to set aside the two track system so that those who are threatening a filibuster had to actually carry it out. In recent years, the actual occurance of an all night filibuster has been exceedingly rare: to my recollection, there have probably been no more than three real, concerted efforts to carry out filibusters in the last two decades.

With respect to the question about why Frist has not forced Democrats to engage in an actual filibuster, many commentators have suggested he do just that. I don’t believe there is any factual answer to why this tactic has not been tried.

Here is a pretty good article about all of this.

3

Thanks for the cnn article. Strange that the Senate’s web page doesn’t mention this “two-track” process. Maybe it’s just a bit complicated to explain in easily digestible bits.

4

Decent article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It describes the “ripening” of the cloture petition and at the bottom the scenario for setting a precedent is laid out.

5

Largely, because an actual filibuster causes all real business of the Senate to cease.