It's really more the heightened power of the minority caucus of the Senate which has recently radically expanded what were previously relatively minor veto poin

It's really more the heightened power of the minority caucus of the Senate which has recently radically expanded what were previously relatively minor veto points in the path of legislation[1]. It's not quite a liberum veto [2] yet but it has some of the pathologies. [1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Cloture_Voting%2C_United_States_Senate%2C_1947_to_2008.svg/480px-Cloture_Voting%2C_United_States_Senate%2C_1947_to_2008.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Clo... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto