"It has been a very long day": an exhausted Sanders leaves the podium after 8.5 hours.
Independent-Socialist Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, made good on his threat to filibuster US President Barack Obama"s deal with Republicans to extend the Bush Tax Cuts in exchange for an extension on unemployment benefits.
The Friday filibuster lasted 8.5 hours, the longest Congressional protest to occur on the Senate floor in 27 years. Sanders started at 10:25 a.m. and finally restored control back to the Speaker at 07:00 p.m. The Socialist was aided by Democrat Party comrades Sherrod Brown from Ohio, who gave a 45-minute speech against the Obama deal, and Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, who spoke for 30 minutes.
History shows that, while effective in drawing attention to the legislation being filibustered, the marathon protests rarely are effective in stopping it from becoming law. Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd broke records in their unsuccessful filibusters to stop Civil Rights bills from becoming law in the 1950s and 1960s. However, before his assassination in 1935, Louisiana Senator Huey Long was able to stop bills that rewarded wealthy Americans at the expense of the poor.
While pundits predict Sanders will ultimately be unable to stop Obama"s deal on the Bush tax cuts, The LA Times dubbed it a success because of its attention-getting quality. A live stream of the event from Sanders" official website drew 12,000 viewers at one point, crashing the servers. The event was also a hot topic of discussion on the micro-blogging website Twitter; the Senator was able to more than double his followers from 9,800 to 21,000 because of the coverage. The UK Guardian said Sanders will help to stiffen Democrat"s resolve in the next session of Congress, and suggested that he may mount a presidential challenge to Obama in the 2012 elections.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would bring the Obama tax deal up for vote next week, despite the Sanders filibuster.
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