Politics or Principle?: Filibustering in the United States Senate

Is American democracy being derailed by the United States Senate filibuster? Is the filibuster an important right that improves the political process or an increasingly partisan tool that delays legislation and thwarts the will of the majority? Are century-old procedures in the Senate hampering the institution from fulfilling its role on the eve of the 21st century?
The filibuster has achieved almost mythic proportions in the history of American politics, but it has escaped a careful, critic...