Sen. Barbara Mikulski Goes After the Filibuster

I'm at the National Treasury Employees Union 2010 Legislative Conference, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., just launched a full-throated attack on the filibuster:

"I want to talk about the way the Senate has to clean up its act. Let me tell you, I am frustrated as hell at the United States Senate. And I'm mad as hell, and I don't want to take it any more. And why am I mad? Because it now takes 60 votes to get anything done. I thought in the United States, America should rule. Every single day, more gets said than gets done. And I know you're grumpy. Grumpy's a good day for me. WI'm part of a young group of Senators who want to change the filibuster rule. I think that is a dated rule from another century. This is the kind of rule that helped Jesse Helms when he tried to filibuster the civil rights bill."

Changing Congressional rules is hard, but it's interesting to see the health care fight build momentum for those changes.