In American history, has any senator ever dedicated himself to learning the rules, and then blocking, delaying, or otherwise gumming up the consideration of every single bill he opposes? (Since all the bills are evil, it wouldn’t matter if he were a Democrat, Independent, or Republican, a conservative, liberal, or libertarian). I don’t believe so, but it sure would be fun. Note: such a role is possible only in the Senate, and not in the House, because of the difference in rules.

UPDATE I asked Diogenes if such a course could be stopped by changing the rules, or did that too require unanimous consent?

“Most everything in the Senate is supposed to require unanimous consent.  In order to get a vote on a motion to proceed to a bill, for example, there must be unanimous consent.  However, the Majority Leader has lots of tools at his disposal to shut things down (Reid managed to block most amendments from ever getting a vote that way).  Also, 60 Senators can vote to end a filibuster.

“Here’s a short paper on an introduction to Senate procedure.  However, there really are a lot of ways that the Majority Leader can shut debate down if he wants. That’s why I wonder if there was more cooperation on recent events than we think.”