The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to eliminate the use of the filibuster to block most presidential nominees.David RohdeProfessor of political science, Duke Universityrohde@duke.eduhttp://polisci.duke.edu/people?Gurl=%2Faas%2FPoliticalScience&Uil=rohde&... specializes in campaigns and elections, and American politics.Quote:"Today the Senate voted to make a significant change in its rules governing filibusters. Now debate on presidential nominations -- except those to the Supreme Court -- can be terminated by a simple majority vote of the chamber, rather than the 60 votes that had previously been required. "This ends the minority party's ability to prevent the filling of such posts merely by continuing to talk, and it marks a historic alteration of the way the Senate does business."However, the import of this change should be kept in perspective. First, as noted, the most important nominations -- those to the Supreme Court -- arenot affected, at least for now. Such nominations can still be blocked byfilibusters. Second, the rules governing filibusters of legislation areunaltered. Gridlock on matters like appropriations, or climate change, or financial regulation, or immigration will not be mitigated by today's developments." _ _ _ _Duke experts on a variety of other topics can be found at http://newsoffice.duke.edu/resources-media/faculty-experts.
