CAN IT EVER BE AGAIN?
It's been a long, long time since Washington D.C. has treated us to a real, old-fashoned filibuster.
Some hints about doing so surfaced recently in the hearings concerning an appointment to the Supreme Court, but nothing came of the threat. That 's a shame, in one way, because young people today need some close-up instructions on what and how the filibuster really was and how it worked. Cloture rules have made it impossible for a Senator to hold the floor indefinitely as they were, in the past, allowed to do.
The word itself comes from from a Dutch term meaning “piracy” and, in one sense, that's pretty much what it was because one Senator stole time from another. Any member could do so, simply by standing up to speak and refusing to yield to anyone else. There was no time limit stating how long a Senator might speak.
It ,at one time, applied to the House as well as to the Senate, b but the House became too big and clumsy for it to b e effective, whereas the Senate stayed pretty much the he same with two added member when a new state joined the union . Rules were set up in the House of Representatives setting up time limits for speakers to favor or oppose a proffered bit of legislation.
In time, Senators became became quite adept at using this right in order to obstruct progress on a bill they did not like. The became quite adept at the practice,too. The records read like some sort of a World's Book of Long Talk Records, with the reigning champion for many years being Senator Wayne Morris (R) of Oregon talked for twenty-two hours and twenty-six minutes at one time without a stop and he had to best others such as Senator Robert M. LaFollette, who held the record for about eighteen hours or so. Then , along came Senator Strom Thurmond, from South Carlina who spoke for twenty-four hours-four hours and eighteen minutes.
Louisiana's Senator Huey Long was a colorful favorite among filibuster entertainers, too, and could hold the floor for hours reading Shakespeare,detailing Cajun recipes and in his own swampy style,and expounding on the affairs of the world at large. One sideline incident which, while not closely associated with the filibuster themselves, has to do with with Clara Booth Luce, who it seems was up for nomination as an Ambassador to some country which was objected to by Sen Wayne Morse, the filibuster champ. She had to withdrew her name from possible nomination when it was reported that she had commented that her disagreement with Senator Morris “went way back to the time when he was kicked in the head by a horse”
The filibuster used to get good media attention, too. Photographers, in particular, the antics of the long-range speakers,of course, and al of that was concurrent with a craze centered around “Dance Marathons, too, where couples stood upright in dance stance as long as they could do so. “Mr Deeds Goes to Washington”,with Jimmy Stewart, was a successful movie on the filibustering subject along with others dealing with Flag Pole sitters and other such remarkable endurance accomplishments of the era.
There is one factor which has never been made plain to me. There are no mentions of bathrooms.
A.L.M. April 5, 2003 [c563wds]
