Rand Paul’s twelve-hour-and-52-minute filibuster was a throwback to epic Senate speeches of years past. According to Mary Baumann of the Senate Historian’s Office, Paul’s filibuster — though far shorter than Strom Thurmond’s infamous 24-hour-and-fourteen-minute filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Act — was the longest since 1992 and the ninth-longest since 1900. (Records were not kept accurately before then.)
What we’re saying is that Paul said a lot of words yesterday. And thanks to a complete transcript from the Library of Congress and whichever heroic transcribers worked their asses off for thirteen hours, we’ve broken down his words (and only his words — not the words of any of the senators who chimed in during the filibuster) by the numbers.
76,470: total words
1,396: I
757: you
522: think
395: people
455: president, presidential
385: kill
350: drone
306: question
216: government
184: power
136: amendment
78: citizen
75: Constitution
63: Obama
61: Brennan
59: CIA
46: imagine
42: yield
41: Awlaki
40: Holder
37: free, freedom
31: 9/11 or September 11
29: Bush
29: freedom
34: Bill of Rights
27: café
24: rule of law
23: Yemen
21: liberty
18: restaurant
12: filibuster
11: Posse Comitatis
10: grenade launcher
7: absurd
6: Bowling Green
5: Hitler
5: Jane Fonda
2: Lewis Carroll
2: tired
