Filibuster Quotes

• In the first 50 years of the filibuster, it was used only 35 times. But the last Congress alone had 112 cloture motions filed, plus threats of more.
  
  This is the tyranny of the minority.

  Peter Fenn

  Years, Minorities, Lasts

  "The tyranny of the minority" by Peter Fenn, www.politico.com. March 19, 2009.

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• You know, the purpose of reconciliation is to avoid the filibuster. The filibuster is an effort to talk something to death.

  Dick Durbin

  Effort, Purpose, Knows

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• Filibusters have proliferated because under current rules just one or two determined senators can stop the Senate from functioning. Today, the mere threat of a filibuster is enough to stop a vote; senators are rarely asked to pull all-nighters like Jimmy Stewart in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'

  Evan Bayh

  Two, Today, Determined

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• They say that women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.

  Clare Boothe Luce

  Women, Memorable, Politics

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• There is no Senate rule governing the proper uses of the filibuster.

  Tony Snow

  Use, Senate, Governing

  "The Head-in-the-Toilet Test", www.foxnews.com. May 19, 2005.

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• I have allowed the president to pick his political appointees…But I will not sit quietly and let him shred the Constitution.

  Rand Paul

  Political, President, Constitution

  "Famous Filibusters Throughout History". "Talk of the Nation" with Lynn Neary and Ken Rudin, www.npr.org. March 7, 2013.

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• President Barack Obama has it right - there is a lot to change about Washington. The problem is, not much will get changed unless we confront the runaway filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

  Peter Fenn

  Usa, President, Problem

  "The tyranny of the minority" by Peter Fenn, www.politico.com. March 19, 2009.

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• Filibuster has long tradition, but used to harm civil rights.

  Barack Obama

  Rights, Long, Tradition

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• It used to be in the Senate that if you were filibustering, you stood up, there was a physical dimension to it, that you when you became exhausted, you'd have to leave the floor. That was the idea of the filibuster.

  Tom Udall

  Ideas, Dimensions, Exhausted

  "The Rachel Maddow Show", www.nbcnews.com. December 15, 2010.

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• I mean, if you go back to 1960 on major pieces of legislation, the filibuster was used about eight percent of the time.

  Tom Udall

  Mean, Eight, Pieces

  "The Rachel Maddow Show", www.msnbc.com. January 26, 2010.

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• In trying to explain our political paralysis, analysts cite President Obama's tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for important legislation. These are large factors to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit of all: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

  Jacob Weisberg

  Ignorance, Political, Important

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• During the Obama years, the Republicans have done an unprecedented amount of stonewalling on cabinet-and-below appointees. I would also argue that their war on judicial nominees has been way beyond what went before. Really, if the president nominated God to serve on the D.C. Court of Appeals, Mitch McConnell would threaten a filibuster.

  Gail Collins

  War, Years, President

  "Is This a Government Which I See Before Me?". Interview with David Brooks and Gail Collins, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. June 05, 2013.

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• I will not let the patriot act, the most un-patriotic of acts, go unchallenged. 

  Rand Paul

  Patriotic, Patriot, Patriot Act

  Rand Paul's Speech on the PATRIOT Act and Government Surveillance, www.c-span.org. May 20, 2015.

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• The next time you do a filibuster, keep walking around.

  Bernie Sanders

  Next, Next Time, Walking

  Source: www.npr.org

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• The only tool the Democrats have is in the Senate, and it's the filibuster.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Tools, Democrat, Senate

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• The filibuster is an affront to commonly understood democratic norms, but then so is the Senate.

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  Affront, Democratic, Norm

  "Ups and Downs" by Hendrik Hertzberg, www.newyorker.com. November 14, 2005.

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• There are two ways of looking at the talking filibuster. My way is as a form of unanimous consent.

  Jeff Merkley

  Talking, Two, Way

  "Sen. Jeff Merkley on the filibuster deal: ‘There are two pieces I'm excited about’". Interview with Ezra Klein, www.washingtonpost.com. January 25, 2013.

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• I would never filibuster any President’s judicial nominee, period. I might vote against them, but I will always see they came to a vote.

  Saxby Chambliss

  President, Might, Vote

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• The power of the silent filibuster to distort Senate politics is now accepted on Capitol Hill and by the press as normal and not worth mentioning. Let me be the skunk at this political garden party and say this stinks. Representative government was not designed to work this way by the Founding Fathers.

  Juan Williams

  Father, Party, Garden

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• Context is everything. Dress me up and see. I'm a carnival barker, an auctioneer, a downtown performance artist, a speaker in tongues, a senator drunk on filibuster. I've got Tourette's. My mouth won't quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I'm reading aloud, my Adam's apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks of empty breath and tone.

  Jonathan Lethem

  Reading, Heart, Artist

  Jonathan Lethem (2011). “Motherless Brooklyn: A Novel”, p.11, Vintage

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• Eleanor Roosevelt fights for an anti-lynch law with the NAACP, with Walter White and Mary McLeod Bethune. And she begs FDR to say one word, say one word to prevent a filibuster or to end a filibuster. From '34 to '35 to '36 to '37 to '38, it comes up again and again, and FDR doesn't say one word. And the correspondence between them that we have, I mean, she says, "I cannot believe you're not going to say one word." And she writes to Walter White, "I've asked FDR to say one word. Perhaps he will." But he doesn't. And these become very bitter disagreements.

  Blanche Wiesen Cook

  Believe, Writing, Mean

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• So I put that all together and I find it makes it hard to justify a filibuster.

  Kent Conrad

  Together, Justify, Hard

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• Filibusters should require 35 senators to... make a commitment to continually debate an issue in reality, not just in theory. The number of votes needed to overcome a filibuster should be reduced to 55 from 60.

  Evan Bayh

  Commitment, Reality, Numbers

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• This is a president [Barack Obama] who came into office in 2008 with a big majority in the House and with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Because of his policies and his conduct in office, seven years later, we have our largest majority in the House since 1928, and we have a majority in the Senate and we have 31 of the 60 governorships.

  Chris Christie

  Years, Office, House

  "Christie explains changed stance on gun laws; Trump Jr. talks father's candidacy; Fiorina scolds Clinton". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. January 6, 2016.

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• Voter suppression laws, overzealous filibuster use, you name it - the Republicans use every tactic they can to stop our democracy from actually selecting the person with the most support.

  Jennifer Granholm

  Law, Names, Support

  "Voter Suppression Is Treasonous" by Jennifer M. Granholm, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 22, 2012.

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