How Republicans turned the unprecedented into the new normal

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/21/1486973/-How-Republicans-turned-the-unprecedented-into-the-new-normal
"As it has turned out, during the Obama years Republicans have made sure the Senate rarely has the capacity to do any business at all. By 2013, the GOP had filibustered 27 of Obama's executive branch nominees, compared to just seven during Dubya's eight years in office. As Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who once demanded an “up-or-down vote” on President Bush’s nominees, proclaimed three years ago during the confirmation process for Republican Chuck Hagel as Obama’s new Secretary of Defense: “There is a 60-vote threshold for every nomination.” If that seems at odds with the traditional understanding that a simple majority wins in the Senate, that’s because Mitch McConnell’s Republicans simply did away with tradition for nominations and just about everything else. When they weren't filibustering people, the GOP was blocking legislation at more than twice the rate of any previous Congress. (The GOP Senate minority actually started that practice during the last two years of President Bush's tenure. As Republican Sen. Trent Lott put it in 2007, "The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it's working for us.")"