My letter to The New York Review of Books in response to Michael Tomasky’s, “The Specter Haunting the Senate” [NYR, September 30, 2010], appears in the NYR, November 11, 2010, under the title, “Who’s Afraid of a Filibuster?”. It is accompanied by a reply from Mr. Tomasky.

I am flattered that Tomasky finds my argument “worthwhile”; he says it has been “much debated in Washington over the past two years.” I agree with his concluding assessment that “Counting on the Democrats to outdo the Republicans in [a filibuster] seems a tenuous hope.”