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The Filibuster Begins: Gregory Koger as a Guest Blogger

- August 19, 2009

Over the next few days I shall be guest-blogging the Monkey Cage; this is proof that either a) I am an expert on a topic of vital interest, b) several of the regular hosts are on vacation and they needed to feed the beast, or c) both a and b. My posts will be about filibustering and filibuster reform in the Senate. I have been writing on this topic for over ten years, including a book on filibustering (Filibustering: A Political History of Obstruction in the House and Senate) which is scheduled for publication next spring from Chicago University Press.

Filibustering and reform are occasionally “hot” topics. In recent years, when one party controls Congress and the White House following a Presidential election (1993-94, 2005, 2009), the activist base of the majority party has chafed at the power wielded by the “losing” party in the Senate and the havoc it can wreak on their party’s agenda, leading to public debates over the legitimacy of filibustering. We have seen significant filibusters this year against the stimulus bill and several nominations, but it is the specter of a filibuster against health care reform that motivates calls for all-night sessions, use of the budget reconciliation process for health care, or generally abolishing the filibuster.

This debate is over a century old. What I (and other political scientists) can offer is a grasp of Congressional history, some data & analysis, and a devious parliamentary mind. Since I started working on this topic in 1998 (Clinton, GOP Senate) we have seen every configuration of party control (Bush and a Republican Senate; Bush and a Democratic Senate; Obama and a Democratic Senate), so I have been able to observe the same game with different players.

For more about me and my research, see my webpage.

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