Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

This post also has nothing to do with the Peace Corps. Don´t worry, I will only do this occasionally.

I completely agree with this article written in the NYT about how to fix the Filibuster issue. The problem is that the minority party is abusing its filibuster power. The solution is to make it impossible to casually filibuster; make the senators read from the phonebook and sleep in the chamber like they do in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Here´s the meat of the article:

An even better step would be to return to the old “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” model — in which a filibuster means that the Senate has to stop everything and debate around the clock — by allowing a motion requiring 40 votes to continue debate every three hours while the chamber is in continuous session. That way it is the minority that has to grab cots and mattresses and be prepared to take to the floor night and day to keep their filibuster alive.

Under such a rule, a sufficiently passionate minority could still preserve the Senate’s traditions and force an extended debate on legislation. But frivolous and obstructionist misuse of the filibuster would be a thing of the past.