In my new Confirmation Tales post, I set forth the basics of filibusters and cloture as a prelude to diving into Senate Democrats’ deployment of the filibuster in 2003 against Miguel Estrada’s D.C. Circuit nomination. If you don’t understand why the Senate has a cloture rule or how it operates, then this is the post for you. An excerpt:
I sometimes hear people ask why the Senate majority doesn’t require opponents to do the hard work of an old-fashioned talking filibuster: “Why not make them talk all night? Why not grind them into exhaustion?”
The basic answer is that when those trying to defeat a filibuster can’t muster the 60 votes needed for cloture, a talking filibuster would impose a wildly asymmetrical burden on them and would, in all but the most extraordinary case, be impossible to defeat.
Read the post for a detailed explanation of this and other points. And please sign up for Confirmation Tales.