Bunning's filibuster

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., pulled back from his filibuster that held up passage of an extension of unemployment benefits, among other things.

Bunning stopped movement on the legislation late last week by demanding his fellow senators provide funding for the $10 billion bill. He pointed out the Senate had recently passed "paygo" legislation that demands any new spending be offset with a like amount of funding elsewhere, often by cuts in other programs.

Democrats argued the measure addressed an emergency and wasn't held to "paygo" provisions and painted Bunning -- and by extension his fellow Republicans -- as obstructionists who were withholding needed unemployment benefits from people who had been out of work for an extended period of time.

The Democrats won that public relations battle and other Republicans convinced Bunning to allow the measure to proceed. It passed Tuesday on a 78-19 vote and U.S. President Barack Obama signed it into law mere hours later.

Bunning, who is retiring after his current term, said the process served a purpose by exposing congressional -- both Democratic and Republican -- efforts to ignore the burgeoning federal deficit.

He said: "Neither side has clean hands. What matters is that we get our spending problems under control."