Posted on 11/28/2004 2:36:14 PM PST by NeoCaveman
Senate Republicans, boldly confident after their Nov. 2 electoral success, are preparing to end months of frustrating delays over President Bush's judicial picks by hitting Democrats with Republican's ultimate legislative weapon.
But the Republican threat to neuter long-cherished filibuster rules by steamrolling Democrats is risky — so potentially destructive that Capitol Hill calls it the "nuclear option." Democratic retaliation would be swift and long-lasting, raising the prospect of escalating clashes in a body that prides itself on gentility and cool judgment.
Even so, Republican leaders are signaling their intent to go nuclear in word and deed.
"We're going to use every tool we possibly can," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who also unveiled a kinder, gentler phrase for the potential rules change: the "constitutional option."
"Republicans are loaded for bear, spoiling for a confrontation with Senate Democrats on judicial appointments," said Norm Ornstein, an expert on Congress for the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. "For a lot of conservatives, this has really become an issue that leaves them passionate."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesargus.com ...
But I'm not breaking out the champagne quite yet
Thermonuclear would be better.
DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll celebrate this in the past tense only. I'll believe it when Brit smacks Juan in the face with it.
Well it's about freakin' time! Enough of this “gentility” hoo-haw...if the DemocratsMarxists on Capitol Hill want a gang-fight, let's give it to them, and make 'em sorry they asked!
Mitch McConnell said it takes 67 votes to change a rule on Cal Thomas last night.
I think you might be on to something. Snarlin' Arlen is all smiles lately, and that means that even for a RINO like him, he knows which side his bread is buttered on. He could certainly go across the aisle ala 'Jumpin Jerk Jeffords', but that isn't how he wants to end his political career.
Arlen wants a nice write up in the history books and if he has to turn right after many decades of leaning left, he'll do it. Politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes, and Arlen is as strange as they come.
But he is a shrewd politician, and I think he would be on board for putting an end to filibustering shenanigans by the 'Rats, because the more the MINORITY party in the Senate tries to screw around with judicial nominations, the more it reflects badly on Specter, because he doesn't want ANYBODY to ever mutter something like "even Orin Hatch ran a better committee than Specter", so when it comes time to nuke the Senate 'Rats, I predict Senator Specter will be in the bombardier's bubble, lining up the targets, and calling out "BOMB'S AWAY!"...
Does my heart good to picture that. Imagine. Arlen Specter coming to his senses even at this late date.
Heh.
I'd still love to see the letter they made Specter sign.....
Yada, yada, yada... I believe it when I see it. Talk is cheap.
And they don't understand the difference between a rule and the Constitution.
Pack the court, pack the court,
Come on everybody, repeat after me and sing along
Pack the court, pack the court here we go
Pack the court
repeat until tired or bored /rant
Exactly. The Dems already declared war.
Launch them suckers! : )
The press is whining for the Rats, so it must mean we're getting somewhere.
Senate GOP set to go 'nuclear' over judges.........
It's about time. Too bad tiny Tom won't be there to have his snout rubbed in the dirt.
If they use every tool they possibly can, President Bush needs to do some appointments during the Congressional Break period.
Clinton set the precedent for that. We need to do it too to save time and energy.
"Constitutional option" ...what the heck is that? Oh yea, to Democrats using the Constitution is just an option. Come on Frist, lead with the Constitution...
Four years isn't that long, we need to expedite lots of things.
Music to my ears is a whining RAT. boo hoo hoo...conservative judges...boo hoo hoo...
Yeah, it's call winning. NOTE to Dimocrats: we won, we govern, get use to it.
Jaun Williams is a DNC sock puppet. He doesn't exist from the waist down.
AMEN
It's about damn time!
Do unto the Dem liberals as they have done unto us-IN SPADES!!!!
Since 1994, the GOP has had so many opportunites to shine. But it hasn't done so yet. With so many RINO's, it's hard to say what can and/or will happen. As a life long resident of Kansas, which has not elected a RAT senator for nearly 60 years, it still elects RINO's. I hope the Senate and House Republicans seize the moment........it's long overdue.
Nor from the neck up.
Voted "Best Description of Juan Williams in 2004."
The Democrats killed that silly notion 15 years ago when they first unveiled the tactic now known as "Borking". The Democrats have since refined and further developed their "art of the smear" through the Clarence Thomas hearings ("a high-tech lynching"), and have now taken the unprecedented path of filibustering TEN lower-level court appointments.
I am delighted to see that the Republicans have finally realized that the Democrats went "nuclear" long, long ago.
Bull hockey. Why is it "going nuclear" for Republicans to work the rules to their own advantage, but not when the other party does so? The dems had already "gone nuclear" by using the filibuster against judicial nominees for the first time in history.
I'll believe it when I see it.
BTTT
Recess appointments are next to worthless.
I didn't know that, how come?
His head is full of sawdust and he has little googly eyes.
I'd keep the cork in, too, because I'll believe this show of spine from the Senate GOP when I see it. Not a moment before, since they don't exactly have a record of standing up for anything.
MM
Frankly, we've heard this foofoodust before--about 4 years ago.
And where are we now?
DO IT!
The nation will never have another chance to jerk the pendulum back to center. If not now, then lookout. The left will dismantle the country to get their way. Pubs better come out swinging.. We the voters have done what we could to clear the deck.. now it's time to get down to business.
Same threat from June, 2003.
When Frist finally DOES something besides whine and threaten, maybe he will be deserving of respect. Until Frist finally DOES something, this is just more empty threat served with more whine and cheese.
Well in 2000 there were 50 Republican Senators with 5 RINO's for a net 45.
In 2002 there were 51 Republican Senators with 5 RINO's for a net 46.
Now there are 55 Republican Senators with 5 RINO's and the head RINO has been castrated.
So now there is cause for some optomism.
True. But the Senate math looks a lot better than it does 2 years ago.
As 55 R's is better than 51.
Unless a senator from the state of the chosen candidate approves, the candidate does not advance. That too must go.
Harry Reid just had a hold on many appointees, but released his hold only when his guy got appointed to the EPA so that the Nuclear Waste issue in Yucca Mt. would have an opponent.
Blackmail, the democrat way. So, it doesn't matter if your party loses, so long as appointments must have home-state senate approval.
'bout time would be the best comment.
Recess appointments expire at the end of any Congressional session. So any such appointments may be useful in the short term, but they are certainly no substitute for the normal lifetime appointments that come as the result of Senate confirmation.
Regards,
LH
how?
Why would he say that? Obviously, if that was the case, then no "nuclear option" would exist at all and there wouldn't even be any discussion. Fortunately, it only takes 51 votes to change the rule.
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