Mr. Merkley Likes Mr. Smith

When U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) visited WW last August for an interview, the freshman's lawmaker said one of his biggest frustrations so far was with how easy it's become for a filibuster to gum up the Senate.

The Oregon Democrat told us then, "I don't think our nation is well served by that or that it produces better legislation. There are a group of us in the freshman class working on that when we come in for the next two-year term."

Now in the weeks before the next two-year session of Congress starting next month, Merkley has been fleshing out some of his proposals to deal with the filibuster.

Last night, on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, Merkley talked about one of those ideas, making senators who are participating in a filibuster stay on the Senate floor—the way it once was before the Senate changed its rules:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo1Wa7gD7QU[/youtube]

Good luck with all that. Meantime, here's a glimpse of the way filibusters "once were":

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAjDmw6IrFg&feature=related[/youtube]