Filibuster Surge

McClatchy reports here about the huge spike in filibusters employed by the current Republican group of senators.

As Matthew Yglesias notes, since the press is obscuring this tactic, it is paying off for the Rs.

It seems, though, that the GOP has decided that if they use filibusters to obstruct congressional action that the press will keep reporting this in a "congress fails to do X" kind of way rather than a "GOP obstructionism" kind of way, which makes filibusters a win-win for Republicans.

Back when the Dems were blocking some judicial nominations, the Rs threatened to do away with the filibuster rule, and I was hoping they would. Dems ended up blocking almost no judicial nominees, a few perhaps, but didn't gain much by keeping the filibuster intact. Now, wouldn't it be handy for Dems to actually pass legislation without the Rs blocking it?

h/t Andrew Sullivan