Gridlock?

Critics of the filibuster are calling for its abolition or drastic modification. Cynthia Tucker calls it "a perversion of democratic principles and a recipe for gridlock when critical matters need to be addressed." Such concerns seem overwrought in light of new data from CQ:

President Obama set a new record last year for getting Congress to vote his way, clinching 96.7 percent of the votes on which he had clearly staked a position

That was a bit less than 4 percentage points higher than the previous record, set by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, according to an annual study by Congressional Quarterly