It's a New Congressional Record!

[UPDATED]
Congratulations are in order. The Senate Republicans have set a new record for mucking around and making sure noting gets done. According to The Campaign for America's Future, Senate Republicans have successfully blocked legislation by threatening to filibuster 62 times. The previous record (at least as far as can be determined using online sources, which only go back 35 years) is 61 set by Democrats in 2001-2002. The Republican accomplishment is even more amazing when we realize that the 110th Congress is not even halfway through--we've still got another whole year before the elections will bring a new Congress to Washington.

This is an amazing situation all the way around. It seems like only yesterday that the majority Republicans were decrying the minority Democrats for using filibusters to block the Prez's right-wing judicial appointments. Majority Leader Bill Frist called the filibuster a "formula for tyranny by the minority." Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said, "'Advise and consent' does not say, 'A supermajority is required.'" The Republicans must be thrilled that they never pursued the "nuclear option," which would have greatly curtailed--if not banned outright--the use of the filibuster. Although I've got no great desire to see the Republicans back in charge, it would be interesting if they were to see just how quickly it took them to turn against the filibuster again as an anti-Constitutional tool of Satan. Do they even bother to pretend they don't have a double standard these days?

UPDATE--Oh, man. I've joked about sleep-blogging before, but this is by far my worst example of it. For those of you coming in late, this post started its life without a title and with a final sentence fragment just kind of drifting off into nothing. I've made the bed and turned the lights back on, so it's a bit more presentable. My apologies to everybody who stopped by before we were open for business.