Taken from a Dutch word meaning "pirate," the term filibuster applies to the rule in which Senators may talk non-stop, debate at length and offer numerous procedural motions to delay or block a vote feared likely to be lost. A filibuster takes 60 votes to stop, a process called "cloture," while the vote it holds up takes only a 51-vote majority to pass or fail. Republican frustration with delays in the confirmation of some of President Bush's judicial nominations nearly led to a Constitutional showdown over the Senate tradition in May 2005, but it was averted in an eleventh-hour deal arranged by a bipartisan handful of senators. Credits:  CBS News, Associated Press, Senate Historical Office