Democrats have put the filibuster in the hot seat. Here's where it comes from CNN 4 days ago By Dana Bash, CNN George Washington is said to have told Thomas Jefferson that they should create the Senate to "cool" House legislation -- like a saucer cools hot tea. But using that notion of cooling what the House passes to outright kill a bill by filibuster is not in the US Constitution, and likely not what Washington had in mind. In fact, early in American history senators did not use endless debate very much to obstruct legislation they didn't like. It wasn't until the mid 1800s that more and more senators began to talk legislation to death that they opposed.