Minority Rules No More

John Barnes provides the most awesome summary of breaking the minority rule in the House of Representatives over 100 years ago. It was interesting to read about Representative Reed who refused to be a Speaker of the House who couldn't pass legislation. He destroyed the process of the "silent filibuster". Essentially the trick of the minority was to avoid answering when a roll call was taken to deprive the body of the quorum needed to do business. Reed started answering for them and caused quite and uproar. The whole article is worth a read. Perhaps the US Senate will follow suit in this session.