The first known use of the filibuster, meaning an attempt to prevent the passage of a law by time-wasting, was in ancient Rome, where Cato the Younger sometimes stalled votes in the Senate by blathering on all day. At first, the filibuster helped him to thwart the ambitions of Julius Caesar. But Caesar eventually trumped him. Next week a few Democratic Caesars in America's Senate are hoping history will repeat itself. American senators have resorted to fili- busters now and again for 170 years (see table). Indeed, the practice has been formalised: Senate rule number 22 states that a filibuster can be overridden only by a vote of 60 of the 100 senators. But the manoeuvre, once rare, has become commonplace.
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