Filibusters and Priorities
By There were two filibusters mounted by Republicans on Wednesday. One in involved Rand Paul and got a lot of attention, and the other was the one they were actually serious about.
Meanwhile, Weigel has a nice concise explanation for the Halligan filibuster. With perhaps one or two particularly clueless exceptions, I very much doubt any of the Democratic senators who agreed to the the non-reform deal actually thought it would do anything to reduce this kind of obstruction. I think they simply support the filibuster.