A Colorado-based political scientist is worried:
A truly effective filibuster could theoretically shut down the Senate for the rest of the year. Congressional Dems and the Obama administration actually want to get some other stuff passed this year while they still have a (large) majority.Finally, a true filibuster today probably wouldn't involve a whole lot of phone book-reading. ... Today, there are dozens of policy shops and hundreds of conservative writers who could generate days and days of material for filibustering Republicans to read. Fox would likely televise many of the speeches live and portray the filibuster as a great patriotic act. If anything, the Republicans would control the discussion during a
filibuster more than they do now.
Sullivan
makes a good point:
Remember the government shut-down? It backfired.
I say let the Republicans knock themselves out. I would hope that someone could force them to grandstand on C-Span, Fox, the network news, etc. In the end it would cost them dearly. Voters may have little confidence that Congress can't get anything done, but it would be another thing entirely to see, live on TV, that members of Congress were basically abdicating their responsibilities to millions of Americans on both sides of our political chasm to whip out their Johnsons and see whose is bigger.
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