IOKIYAR to infinity and beyond!

In 2005, the 109th Congress was dominated by Republicans, who complained like crazy about Democratic threats to filibuster judicial appointments. How dare they abuse this time-honored senatorial privilege to disrupt the people’s business? cried the Republicans, who threatened to nuke the privilege outright to prevent its sullying. In that year, the term “filibuster” appeared in 358 stories in the New York Times and 407 stories in the Washington Post. —In 2007, the 110th Congress sees a Democratic majority, and a Republican minority who have disrupted the people’s business with filibuster threats on everything from popular energy legislation to budget measures a whopping 62 times—on a pace to more than double every previous record for using and abusing this time-honored senatorial privilege. In this year, the Times has published 83 stories mentioning “filibuster”; the Post, 187. (So far. There’s just over a week left to 2007. Maybe they’ll catch up?)