Sen. Rand Paul Stages 13 Hour Filibuster Over Drone Strikes

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12 to 3 on Tuesday to confirm John Brennan as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

However, cure Brennan may have at least one more hurdle to clear before final confirmation, pills namely, approved Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has vowed to block his nomination until the White House provides more information on its secretive drone program.

The Kentucky senator doesn’t have the 41 votes necessary to prevent a cloture vote, which would block Brennan’s confirmation, so he’s doing the only thing he can do: He’s stalling all senate business with an honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned filibuster.

“I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA,” Sen. Paul at approximately 11:45 a.m ET on Wednesday.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak, I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our constitution is important, that your right to trial by jury is precious, that no American should be killed on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court,” he added.

And it looks like he’s in it for the long haul.-[source]