What Rand Paul's old-school filibuster will accomplish

Sen. Rand Paul, the freewheeling libertarian from Kentucky, launched into an old-fashioned filibuster on Wednesday to block John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director. Paul is angry about a letter he received from Attorney General Eric Holder saying that in an extreme situation a president could, in theory, order lethal force to be used against an American citizen in the U.S. Paul called that an "abomination," and vowed to hold up Brennan's nomination until the Obama administration vowed to never use drone strikes on American soil.

"I will speak until I can no longer speak," Paul said as he launched his filibuster. "I will speak as long as it takes until the alarm is sounded coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by drone on American soil, without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court."

Paul succeeded in surprising his colleagues, if nothing else. In fact, says Philip Ewing at Politico, shortly before Paul took over the podium, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Saxby Chambliss, said he'd go along with a vote on Brennan on Wednesday. That might be why congressional aides expected Paul's "high-profile filibuster" to fizzle after a few hours.

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Even Paul has conceded during his rambling talk that he lacks the votes to derail the nomination. No matter how Paul's filibuster ends, though, it has already accomplished one thing. He has undeniably gotten people's attention. This is the first "talking filibuster" in more than two years, notes Grace Wyler at Business Insider.

Paul's resurrection of one of "the most celebrated — ahem detested — pageants of the American political process" is indeed a futile gesture, says Brian Resnick at National Journal. It's also awesome entertainment. "Forget Netflix, this is the real House of Cards." The question now is whether the Tea Party favorite can break the record for the longest filibuster as he conjures up memories of Jimmy Stewart's marathon rambling talk in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.