Filibuster--The Prequel

Over at NRO, don't miss John Barnes's wonderful history of the filibuster in the 19th century:

[T]he filibuster did indeed once have a home in the House. That it doesn't anymore is a tribute to a 19th-century Republican hero: Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine. If he is recalled at all today, it is because of the memorable nickname his enemies fastened to him in the wake of Reed's successful abolition of the filibuster in the House: "Czar." . . .

Since that time, the House of Representatives has become the legislative body that is most responsive to its leadership. Few bills that are strongly supported by the speaker's party fail to reach a vote and pass. The minority party has a right to be heard, to vote, and, as Reed once put it, "draw its pay," but little more. This is not a matter of simple power politics, as Reed knew, but of representative government itself. The party winning the most votes in an election has the right to see its program voted on and moved, not merely debated. Otherwise, the public becomes cynical about the entire democratic process — and rightfully so.

Read the whole thing.