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In the modern filibuster, the senators trying to block a vote do not have to hold the floor and continue to speak as long as there is a quorum. In the past, when one senator became exhausted, another would need to take over to continue the filibuster. Ultimately, the filibuster could be exhausted by a majority who would even sleep in cots outside the Senate Chamber to exhaust the filibusterers. Today, the minority just advises the majority leader that the filibuster is on. All debate on the bill is stopped until either cloture is voted by three-fifths (now 60 votes) of the Senate.

In the 2007-08 session of Congress, Republicans forced 112 cloture votes, nearly doubling the Democrats' record when they were in the minority.

Filibuster was invoked sparingly in less partisan times – an average of once a year in the 1950s, but 139 times by Republicans in 2008.

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In the 1950s, the number of cloture motions filed (a proxy for the number of filibusters) averaged one per Congress. By the 93rd Congress (1973-75) that number had jumped to 44. By the 110th Congress (2007-09) it had risen to 139, a record that the 111th Congress (2009-present) is on track to match.

Today it is an accepted fact of life that the Senate can't pass any major legislation without 60 votes. But as recently as two decades ago, all it usually needed was 51. In the January/February Atlantic, James Fallows writes that this change "converts the Senate from the 'saucer' George Washington called it, in which scalding ideas from the more temperamental House might 'cool,' into a deep freeze and a dead weight."

The most widely cited enabler for the recent acceleration was a 1975 Senate rule change—one that, coming at a time when filibusters were on the rise, sought to reduce them by lowering the cloture requirement from 67 to 60 votes. But this fix (combined with a less widely cited earlier procedural change made in 1961) inadvertently increased the filibuster's use by ushering in the so-called "procedural" filibuster, a sort of filibuster-lite that allowed the minority to block legislation without a dissenting senator's having to speechify himself hoarse. In recent years, the worst abusers have been Republicans.

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The Democrats used it to block Bush Judicial nominations.

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By their signatures, the seven Democrats who signed the memorandum agreed that for the remainder of this year and during 2006, “Nominees [to federal judgeships] should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist.”

In return, the seven Republicans pledged not to vote for the rules change (to get rid of the filibuster) while the agreement remains in force.

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Gallup poll finds 56% of Americans in favor and 33% opposed to Congress' passing major healthcare reform legislation this year.

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the Democrats WILL be out of power at some point

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it's been ramping up and the abuse has become more widespread,

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Was it the BiPolar thing? It was, wasn't it?

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While the fillibuster in theory might provide time for reflection on hasty legislation, in practice a small minority can block necessary legislation. Wielded with malice, it is a powerful tool for obstructionists who only want to make the 'other side' lose.

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