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The filibuster
Can the Senate get along without it, and what happens with the next shift in the balance of power?
Houston - Political reality.
The president will have little chance of pushing through much of his ambitious agenda as long as the Senate filibuster rule remains in place.
Just for the record - 60 senators must vote to end a debate and bring a bill up for a vote.
The prospect of Democrats - with their razor-thin majority - spiking the filibuster - suffered a major blow this week when moderate West Virginia senator Joe Manchin announced that "under no circumstances" would he vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster.
As the ultimate swing vote Manchin has become, quite literally, the second most powerful politician in America.....