David McCumber: Shed no tears for the filibuster  December 16,
2013   Oh, for those halcyon days in the Senate, when
partisanship, obstructionism and gentlemanly treachery were
codified in the rules.  When it didn't matter that a majority of
senators finally got up the guts to support something their
constituents, as opposed to the interest groups, wanted -- it
wasn't going to happen, because of those ancient, traditional,
hallowed rules.  After all, any bunch of fools -- did I SAY the
House of Representatives? -- can operate on majority rule. In
the high-flown Senate, avoiding the will of the people always
had to be done with finesse.  Forever, the Senate has been a
(hot) airbag, a buffer, a place where the battering ram of
public outrage met the deep, smothering pillow of the rules.
Where the wrong side of history could, for a while at least,
comfortably hang out in the cloakroom with its old crony, the
status quo.  Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina filibustering
the Civil Rights Act. Sen. Jesse Helms o