Politics: Everybody Loves Filibusters

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Politics Everybody Loves Filibusters At least the way Sen. Rand Paul does them. By David Weigel Posted Thursday, Mar 07, 2013, at 12:02 AM ET It started with a tweet. Nearly three hours into Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster—a protest of John Brennan's nomination to run the CIA, at least until the Obama administration answered more questions about drone warfare—Utah Sen. Mike Lee's press office tweeted that he was coming to the floor. When Lee arrived, he asked a question, and Paul gave him the floor. Photographers and reporters watching C-SPAN cameras lost the picture of Paul and sprinted down marble stairs to the doors of the Senate to catch him leaving. He wasn't leaving. When a senator exercises his right to filibuster, he has to stand at his desk. He can't sit. He can't relieve his bladder. That's what makes a real, talking filibuster so difficult and so rare that a reporter who joined the Capitol Hill beat in January 2011 had never seen one. The last extended speech, by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, briefly held up the 2010 lame duck tax-cut compromise. That speech became an insta-book, thanks to The Nation. As media bait that speech had nothing on the #Randpage. Paul had warned for weeks that he would "use every procedural option at my disposal to delay" Brennan's confirmation. He arrived in the Senate on Wednesday with a black binder packed with drone-skeptic articles and quoted from the Atlantic, Esquire, National Review, and the Guardian. Within hours, reporters who rarely covered drone policy were live-tweeting Paul quotes. The National Republican Senatorial Committee ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Everybody Loves Filibusters The Laptop of the Future We're Spreading What on Our Parks?	Advertisement
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