Who’s Afraid of a Filibuster?

Joe Conason / Truthdig Nov 13, 2008 Is there enough muscle behind the GOP filibuster threat to block Obama's mandate? The short answer is no -- and the new president's own political arsenal should enable him to call the Republican bluff. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Stevens Won’t Back Down

Staff / Truthdig Oct 28, 2008 Even as his conviction has politicos rethinking Senate filibuster math, Ted Stevens of Alaska says he'll fight the verdict and continue campaigning for re-election. It's not all bad news for the longest serving Senate Republican -- and you really can't make this up -- the Senate doesn't ban convicted felons. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Ted Kennedy Makes Surprise Visit to Save Medicare Bill

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2008 Just when it seemed they wouldn't have enough votes to pass a key Medicare bill, Democratic senators staged a dramatic coup by secretly whisking Sen. Edward Kennedy into the Capitol on Wednesday to cast his vote and make his first congressional appearance since he was diagnosed with brain cancer in May. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Cutting Edge of Backward Thinking

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Apr 29, 2008 Senate Republicans are determined to join with the Supreme Court to keep women on the losing end of discriminatory pay. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Dodd to the Rescue

Staff / Truthdig Dec 19, 2007 Sen. Chris Dodd just put his money where his mouth has been in the presidential campaign, filibustering a nasty bit of legislation the Senate tried to push through before the Christmas break. Here he tells MSNBC why giving retroactive immunity to the telecom companies for spying on Americans is a bad thing. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Dodd Gears Up for FISA Filibuster

Staff / Truthdig Dec 18, 2007 Sen. Chris Dodd is preparing to take to the Senate floor with a filibuster to thwart the legislative advancement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act if it doesn't include his proposed amendment, co-sponsored with Sen. Russ Feingold, that would prevent the Bush administration from retroactively letting big telecom companies off the hook for allowing the government to conduct warrantless surveillance on their networks. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Reid Promises to Force Filibuster on Iraq Withdrawal

Staff / Truthdig Jul 17, 2007 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has announced that Senate Democrats are going to force Republicans to filibuster all night long if they want to continue to block Iraq troop withdrawal legislation. Previously, the Democrats politely allowed the opposition's formal promise to filibuster to stand in for the action itself. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Call to Limit Deployments Is a No-Go in Senate

Staff / Truthdig Jul 12, 2007 So much for "supporting our troops": A bipartisan proposal sponsored by two combat veterans to give exhausted U.S. troops more time between their military deployments overseas was defeated by Republicans in the Senate, the first vote of a two-week congressional debate on Iraq. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Save the (Republican) Senators

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Jul 12, 2007 Iraq has, for years since our supposed victory, been in a spiral of death and political despair that the American military cannot stop Despite the daily reports of carnage, Republican senators pushed to stay the course Now with re-election campaigns underway, suddenly even Republicans are seeing the light kind of. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

A Taste of Things to Come

Staff / Truthdig Jan 10, 2007 President Bush has finally been forced to capitulate when it comes to the judiciary, after igniting a firestorm by announcing he would stand by the nominations of three conservative judges that had been blocked by Democrats. Bush conceded on Tuesday, announcing that all three nominees had withdrawn from the process. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

No Deal on Immigration

Staff / Truthdig Apr 7, 2006 The immigration bill, which seemed to have majority support, failed in the Senate Friday amid efforts to amend the bill. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the amendments proposed by conservative Republicans "filibuster by amendment." So much for the hyped bipartisan compromise on immigration reform. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Patriot Act Renewal Passes by Two Votes

Staff / Truthdig Mar 8, 2006 The cliffhanger vote caught Republican leaders by surprise. The president is expected to sign the legislation into law before Friday. With the nation's attention trained squarely on the Dubai Ports fiasco (not that it's an unimportant issue), Congress has passed the most sweeping abridgement of American freedoms in a generation--with barely a peep from the public. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )