How Republicans could shut the Senate down, if they wanted to

Could Republicans shut the Senate down if they wanted to? All of the sudden, that's not such an idle question. As we'vebeen noting, Democrats in the Senate are proposing to tweak the chamber's filibuster rules when the 113th Congress convenes in January. Doing so would make it somewhat more cumbersome for the GOP minority to block legislation. And Democrats argue that they can make these changes with a simple 51-vote majority the so-called "constitutional option." Read full article >>