Senators numbering well short of a majority can prevent measures -- or nominations -- from happening by means of the filibuster, which can only be broken by no fewer than 60 votes.
It wasn't until 1991 that women senators numbered more than two (when we got up to a whopping four).
It is taken for granted that without the support of sixty of the hundred senators, the number needed to invoke "cloture," nothing emerges from the Senate alive.
At the moment, neither Feinstein's nor Wyden's legislation has the support of sixty senators, the number it needs to get to the floor for a vote.
Why should a democracy bypass or even override the votes of the people and leave the choice to electors -- a total equal to each state's two senators and number of representatives in the House?
But the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, said the House would probably not accept any bill supported by 60 senators, the number that would be needed to end a filibuster.
It urges viewers to fight back against SOPA/PIPA by finding their senators' phone number at Cheezburger's http://bit.ly/lifeaftersopa and telling them how they feel.
Currently, the app has representatives from virtually all of the different running campaigns, along with five U.S. Senators, a number of congressmen, and prominent political analysts like Dan Pfeiffer, David Axelrod and Chuck Todd.
But instead of making people search for their senators' phone numbers or even dial them themselves, the group is going a little more high-tech.
The New York Post put Senator Chuck Schumer, the number three Senate Democrat, on its front page, under the headline: "Where's Chuck?
