Sen. Rand Paul Ends 13-Hour Filibuster; Had to Use the Bathroom

For roughly 13-hours Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul spoke on the Senate floor in a filibuster attempt to block the vote on John Brennan's nomination as the new director of the CIA.

Paull finally put an end to the filibuster at 12: 30 a.m. on Thursday, the Associated Press reports. He decided to use the procedure, often used by Senators to extend debate at the Senate chamber in order to block a vote on legislation they oppose, to voice his disapproval of Brennan's nomination and the possible use of drone strikes against targets in the U.S..

"Do you really believe you have the constitutional authority to do this?" said Paul at one point during what is now the ninth longest filibuster on record, The New Yorker reports. 

To take up as much time as possible, Paul read "Alice in Wonderland" and replaced the text reading "Off with their heads" with "Send in the drones!" He also read the fifth amendment and quoted the DangerRoom blog from the tech magazine Wired.

Paul also got some help from his Republican colleagues. Marco Rubio asked Paul if he needed water and then quoted lyric's from rapper Jay-Z's song "A Week Ago." Senator Ted Cruz gave Paul a helping hand by reading tweets with the hashtag #standwithrand. 

Paul, a favorite among Tea Party supporters, was forced to stop his one man marathon when he had to use the bathroom.

"I discovered that there are some limits to filibustering and I'm going to have to go and take care of one of those in a few minutes," he said.

Once the senator left the floor, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin ended the debate and the Senate will vote on Brennan's nomination sometime this week, the Associated Press reports.