Fisher calls for ending filibuster

Lee Fisher, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, today called for ending the filibuster that is holding up an extension of unemployment benefits, proffering a living example of how Ohioans are being affected.

In a conference call with reporters, Fisher introduced a family friend, identified only as Carolyn, who said she was in a Cleveland-area hospital receiving chemotheraphy for lymphoma as she was speaking. Carolyn, 47, of Strongsville, said she had been laid off from her job as a corporate travel agent and had been collecting unemployment compensation since June.

She and her husband, a small business owner, have a "blended family" of five children, four of whom are in college, and losing unemployment compensation while fighting cancer has been challenging, Carolyn said.

"It's been rough and to hear now that I've just gotten my last check is a scary thing."

A Senate vote on a one-month extension of unemployment benefits has been held up by Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican. Fisher asked Ohioans to sign a petition on his campaign Web site calling upon the Senate to do away with the filibuster, which he called an "arcane rule" that has been abused.

Citing Carolyn as an example, Fisher said Washington's "gridlock and paralysis are directly affecting peoples' lives."

Senate Democrats have enough support to end the filibuster by using a procedure called cloture, but so far Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has not invoked it.