7 8 9 10 11 12+ Hours and It’s Over…
UPDATE: (Hufington Post) After nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has ended his filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” Paul said at the beginning of the filibuster, which he used to address concerns over President Obama’s policies on civil liberties, including the president’s controversial drone program.
Paul began the filibuster at 11:47 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and concluded at 12:39 a.m. on Thursday. After Paul ceded the floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) filed for cloture on Brennan’s nomination, adjourning the Senate until 10 a.m. Thursday. (read more)
Sticky Post as long as he keeps going. #standwithRand trending on twitter. @11:00pm he’s still going strong and making solid well reasoned arguments. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Ron Wydgand (Dem – WA) and now Marco Rubio supporting.
Pretty remarkable: He cannot sit down, he must remain standing. He cannot leave the floor (even to use the restroom), or the filibuster ends. The previous record is 24 hours and 18 minutes.
Stand With Rand
Marco Rubio joins discussion on Senate floor; so far four Republicans and one Democrat involved.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 6, 2013
Not going to get overjoyed that Rand Paul is doing something brave after he caved to vote approval for Chuck Hagel merely to pander to his father’s bots. However, on principle the filibuster of Brennan it is a good thing.
However, what makes it better is Ted Cruz joins in to tag team assist. 🙂
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is staging an active filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director, a move prompted by Attorney General Eric Holder’s admission that it could be constitutional to carry out a drone strike on an American in the United States.
Paul said that all presidents must honor the Fifth Amendment. “No American should ever be killed in their house without warrant and some kind of aggressive behavior by them,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “To be bombed in your sleep? There’s nothing American about that . . . [Obama] says trust him because he hasn’t done it yet. He says he doesn’t intend to do so, but he might. Mr. President, that’s not good enough . . . so I’ve come here to speak for as long as I can to draw attention to something that I find to really be very disturbing.”
“I will not sit quietly and let him shred the Constitution,” Paul added.”No person will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process,” he said, quoting the Fifth Amendment. (read more)
Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas joined Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky. in his filibuster of President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan as director of the C.I.A. in a vocal protest of the president’s drone program.
“I would note that your standing here today, like a modern Mr. Smith goes to Washington, must surely be making Jimmy Stewart smile,” Cruz said adding that all 100 senators should join him in the defense of the Constitution.