Sanders' Tax-Deal Filibuster Ends

Nothing like an old-school filibuster: Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) launched an 8.5-hour filibuster to obstruct a vote on President Obama’s tax deal Friday. The Independent from Vermont, a self-described socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, opposes the deal because he says it’s too generous to the wealthy. Unlike many a filibustering senator before him, Sanders didn’t read from a mundane text like the phone book, but actually railed against perceived economic injustices, the tax bill among them, the entire time. “You can call what I am doing today whatever you want, you can call it a filibuster, you can call it a very long speech,” he said. Sanders’ filibuster became an instant news phenomenon, overwhelming Senate video servers as people tried to tune-in online, and catapulting his name to the most popular term on Twitter both in the U.S. and worldwide. The longest record for a filibuster is 24 hours, 18 minutes when Strom Thurmond opposed the civil-rights bill in 1957.