joining now is senator jeff merkley of oregon, chief sponsor of the amendment that passed calling on an accelerated withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan. senator merkley, congratulations on the success of that amendment today. >> thank you very much, rachel. it's an incredible amount of things happening around the world today. >> yeah. i feel like this is one of those moments when i have very high hopes and very high wishes for what our political process will be capable of doing, and i have to say, seeing your amendment passed today in such a bipartisan fashion with so much republican support made me have some hope that some of the biggest foreign policy challenges we've got might be tackled in a way that is at least less partisan, if not less nonsensical. do you feel that way about it? >> you know, this was a very bold and bipartisan moment. it's the first time in 11 years that a chamber of u.s. congress has said we need to end this war in afghanistan and bring our sons and daughters home and to do it by nearly a 2-1 margin and tell the president, not only should you stay the

senator jeff merkley of oregon supports a rule enforcing a talking filibuster.han weisman is a congressional correspondent for "the new york times." senator, thank you so much for joining us tonight. i never met you, but this is quite a cause. how does it look? can you get this done on the first day of business in january? >> well, i think it has a very good possibility. senators are so frustrated with the current state of affairs that they're recognizing that there is no longer a choice, if you will, between just getting along or reforming. we're going to have to reform the rules in order to have the senate have any chance of addressing the big issues america faces. >> as you look at it as a student of politics, you're now a united states senator, what is a proper use of a jimmy stewart type filibuster where one guy or woman goes out there and basically holds the floor as long as their physical ability and their moral strength holds? >> when you have an issue that you feel so profoundly concerned about that it threatens core values or core interests of your sta

be done in a senate floor speech in may earlier this year reid praised senators tom udall and jeff merkley who desperately tried to pass filibuster reform at the beginning of two thousand and eleven reid said these two young fine senators said it was time we changed the rules in the senate and we did it they were right the rest of us were wrong or most of us now anyway what a shame. now reid has a chance to correct this mistake and it looks like he'll try to do just that in a press conference that day reid said in regard to the filibuster i think the rules have been abused and we are going to work to change them we will not do away with the filibuster but will make the senate a more meaningful place we're going to make it so we can get things done on day one of the new senator there will be a small window of a few hours open for harry reid and democrats to reform the filibuster and all it will take to change the senate rules is fifty one votes a simple majority considering the democrats are going to be entering the new senate with as many as fifty five votes this is a real possibility they

veteran senators jeff merkley of oregon, tom clark of iowa, have long advocated for at least that kindrm. at least the kind of reform where senators have to work for a filibuster. they have to stand up there and talk for as long as they want to hold something up. they can't just do it easy. by saying so. those senators have been building support for tweaking the rules for the new session that starts after the new year. and almost all of the rest of the newly elected democratic senators are standing with those reformers and with elizabeth warren on this. remember they only need a majority. elizabeth warren was a national figure before she ever ran for the senate. which means she's poised to be the most-watched freshman in washington as of january. in her campaign, she made it clear she was going to be a different kind of senator. she said she was not going to go to washington to build a quote, long, illustrious career in the senate. she wanted to go and make some changes. so now for the most-watched newbie in the country, we know what day one is going to be about. fixing that stupid fil

here is how jeff merkley explained the new plan.quote, i think about the veterans job bill. if the republicans had instead of killing it through the silent filibuster, if they had to take that t floor we're blocking a vote, i think enough americans would have given feedback on both sides of the aisle and said that's crazy, stop that. in other words, filibusters would have to look a lot more like this classic scene. >> wild horses aren't going to drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything i've got to say, even if it takes all winter. >> that's right. in "mr. smith goes to washington" the filibuster exposed a secret problem in washington. today the filibuster is the secret problem. i think any plans to expose it, making politicians accountable for their obstruction would be a step towards ending gridlock in this congress. . that would definitely be quite a spectacle, seeing senators on the floor all night long, reading historic documents, a phone book, cookbooks, they say that the minority protection rights in the