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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a sharp warning from the Senate floor on Tuesday, warning of a “scorched-Earth Senate” in response to Democrats pressing to end the filibuster. “Does anyone really believe the American people were voting for an entirely new system of government by electing Joe Biden to the White House and a 50-50 Senate?” McConnell asked his colleagues, emphasizing the Senate is split and Democrats only have the edge due to the party occupying the White House.

Politics aside, Ted Cruz’s epic Senate speech raises some health concerns. Isn’t it a bad idea to stand and talk for 21 hours without sleep? Dr. Kent Sepkowitz gives his diagnosis. What do Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz, droves of old-school Communist politburo members, and the straight-arrow, and therefore completely fictional, Sen. Jefferson Smith all have in common? They like to give long speeches. Really long speeches. Speeches so long, in fact, that no one knows what to say or do about them except report that the speeches are mighty long. And perhaps compare them to other really long...

Despite what you see on C-SPAN2, or what you read on Twitter, Ted Cruz is not filibustering Obamacare. The Republican senator from Texas is speaking on the Senate floor for what is expected to be very long time—asked by reporters when he'd stop, he replied, "We shall see"—but it's not a filibuster in the sense of actually stopping the upper chamber's proceedings. Instead, Cruz's stand is purely symbolic.In a real talking filibuster, as famously portrayed in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a senator occupies the Senate floor indefinitely so as to block the chamber from taking up any other business....

WASHINGTON, May 25 — The Senate cleared the way on Thursday for a top aide to President Bush, Brett M. Kavanaugh, to be confirmed for the federal appeals court, avoiding a partisan showdown over a nomination that had been stalled for three years. Senators voted, 67 to 30, for a floor vote on the nomination, expected on Friday. Democrats said Mr. Kavanaugh, who was on the staff of Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, was too partisan and lacked the experience for the appellate bench. But the senators were unwilling to block the nomination using...

Pressure may drive Dems to filibuster Alito vote January 22, 2006 BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Pressure from liberal activists to oppose confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court has been so intense that Democratic senators may be trapped into a filibuster that they do not want to wage. Despite the consensus that Alito performed well in his confirmation hearings, leaders of liberal organizations opposing him -- Ralph Neas, Nan Aron and Wade Henderson -- demand that Democrats vote against him. Consequently, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is the only Democrat at this writing who has announced in...

Just one week before the 2002 midterms, the president invited leaders in the fight for his judicial nominees to the White House to a lunch reception. A Clinton administration adviser who'd gotten wind of the event and thought it a waste of time had been overheard saying, "What does that rate as an issue with American voters--somewhere below campaign-finance reform?" The answer, in fact, is that the issue of the judicial nominees mattered--and matters--a lot; you might even say it explains the current Republican margin in the Senate. Allow me to explain why. Back in 2002, the conventional Beltway wisdom...

President Bush on Tuesday pressed Senate Republican leaders to continue fighting to confirm John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, even though Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said his options had been exhausted and some Republicans urged the appointment of Mr. Bolton when Congress recesses. "The president made it very clear that he expects an up-or-down vote," Dr. Frist told reporters after meeting with the president. Back in the Capitol, he added, "I don't want to close that door yet." Earlier in the day, Dr. Frist suggested the door had been closed, telling reporters that "me bringing...

Democrats blocked another attempt Monday by the Senate to confirm John Bolton to become U.N. ambassador, delivering a second-straight setback to President Bush even as he left the door open to temporarily installing Bolton on his own. The Republican-run chamber fell six votes short of the 60 it needed to end Democratic delays that have prevented a roll call on confirming the tough-talking conservative. The vote was 54-38 in favor of ending the delays. The tally left Bush facing stark choices — most of which could leave him appearing weak at a time he is facing sagging poll numbers and...

Those following the proceedings during the past year of the Senate Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs have been mystified by the rabid actions of the one man on the committee who should be grateful that for the nearly three decades there have been activists in America who have refused to let die the issue of the fate of Americans lost and missing in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War. I am speaking of course of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). None of the Senators on the Select Committee have been as vicious in their attacks on POW/MIA family members...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER              Upon completion of action on the pending highway bill, the Senate will begin debate on fair up or down votes on judicial nominations.  As is the regular order, the Leader will move to act on judge nominations sent to the full Senate by the Judiciary Committee in the past several weeks.  Priscilla Owen, to serve as a judge for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Janice Rogers Brown, to serve as a judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, will be the...