As a kid I watched Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and inspiring movie about an honest, everyday guy who by happenchance is appointed to the United States Senate from an unnamed Midwestern state. The movie reaches its peak when Senator Jeff Smith filibusters to block a bill that is backed by the corrupt political bosses who seek to have him removed from the Senate.

   Frank Capra’s film is a classic. Also, it explains how the filibuster is an important part of our political system, in which one man (there were no women in the Senate although Jean Arthur’s character told Jeff Smith how to do everything) could bring Congress to a screeching halt by filibuster. Filibusters were notorious, but seldom used. They were a means by which a bill could be blocked. They also required good physical shape. Senator Jeff Smith filibusters to a pint of exhaustion at which he collapses on the floor of the Senate.

   Fast-forward to 2009. President Obama has taken office. His party has 57 senators, with two independents (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut) who regularly—but not always—vote with the Democrats. Al Franken has won in Minnesota, but is the subject of a recount (that he eventually won). Some legislation could not get through the Senate because Senate rules require 60 votes to get around a filibuster. The Constitution allows the Senate to operate by its own rules.

   Where were all those (old) men and (now) women standing at the podium, reading passages from cook books or their favorites works of fiction?    

   The Senate has changed the rules on filibusters. Now a senator’s mere threat of a filibuster is enough to impose the actual thing.

   I remember an episode of Star Trek, titled "A Taste of Armageddon." (I was on the Trivia Bowl championship team at DePauw, and remembered the episode, but got its title quickly via Google.) The crew encounters a planet at war with another planet in which the expense of war has been reduced. The two planets fight simulated battles by computer. People submit to execution if they are "hit." (Sort of like Battleship.) The blood and gore and nastiness of war had been removed although people still were killed.

   I always questioned the usefulness of filibusters. My earliest recollection of their use was by senators from Southern states  to block legislation that sought to protect civil rights for minorities. At least those people had to get up off their asses and do something for however-many hours they spoke. Now a senator need only press a button or send an e-mail from his/her plush leather chair, and get back on that phone to talk with another lobbyist to generate more campaign contributions.

   Senate rules should be changed. For what a senator is being paid, s/he should get up off her/his ass once in a while. Legislation should not be blocked by what has become a fictional rule that requires a majority of 60—to overcome a threatened filibuster. If a senator wants to read a cookbook (one Southern senator was famous for doing that during a filibuster, as I recall) or a favorite work of fiction (like anything by Grover Norquist), let him or her do so. I think there would be fewer filibusters if senators actually had to work.

   Today’s (03/03/12) Show, btw, is about the Super Tuesday primaries and the general state of the nomination process. Guests will be Jon Easter and Matt Stone. 11 a.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue, Broad Ripple.