A nice Primer on the Filibuster...

James Fallows, over at the Atlantic is working on a big article for the new issue. For those interested I thought I would pass that tidbit along. It was this tidbit, in his post, that caught my attention :

"That topic is supermajority rule in the U.S. Senate-- that is, the need to win more than a simple majority of senators to pass laws. Great checker and balancer though Madison was, this feature of American institutional life would probably have surprised him and might have distressed him....

"Automatic failure for bills not reaching the 60 mark. That is the current Senate practice, and in my view it has aroused surprisingly little interest or concern among the public or even in political science. It is treated as matter- of-fact. One might ask: What ever happened to the value of majority rule?

It was an informative read. I highly recommend it.

-Cheers