Rachel Bovard

But it has really become a problem, I think, for a lot of these senators that they try to just wait out the base of their party.

They can just wait out this moment because the centrifugal pull of this town is still Bushism.

And there are people that made their careers during that administration.

They have done very well for themselves.

And, you know, all the incentive structures around them want to go back to that.

So there definitely is that, you know, portion of Senate Republicans that do think that this is just a period of time they have to get through and then everything is going to snap back to normal.

Well, let me give you this food for thought as well.

The filibuster as it exists has always been part of the tradition of the Senate.

The Senate rules are actually built around endless debate.

What's different is the silent filibuster, and that's what you talked about, this reaching 60 votes.

That's the cloture rule, and that was instituted in 1917.

The Senate rules up until that point and continued still today always provided ways to get around the filibuster.

It just requires a lot of hard work.

It requires all senators to be on the floor to present a quorum.

It requires them to wait out Democrats to force them to speak, right?

The traditional talking filibuster.

Senate Republicans at any moment could be forcing Democrats into this position.

And I think that was what was so frustrating for many of us watching the government shutdown.

Democrats shut down the government and then looked like they went to Club Med.

Right.