***THREAD 2: UPDATED FR HELP REQUESTED for Senate Judiciary Filibuster next Wed/Thurs.!!***

11/10/03 | Diotima

[diotima]

Stop the Democrat obstruction of Bush's Judicial Nominees!!

Republican Marathon starts this Wednesday, 6pm

What you can do: 1. Write letters to the editor of your local paper 2. Call in local talk radio 3. Email, call or fax letters of support to your Republican senators for standing up against democrat obstruction 4. Email, call or fax letters to your Democrat senators demanding the obstruction stop 5. Email, call, fax Sen. Frist letter of support for leading the fight 6. Attend the filibuster if you are in the area, gallery seating is open to the public! 7. Special events are being planned. Watch these threads for more details.

TOLL FREE Senate Switchboard 1-800-648-3516 Support Bill Frist Email phone 202-224-3344 fax 202-228-1264

 

TUESDAY, 5pm Chuck Muth and Kay Daly on Radio Free Republic, scheduled guest Orrin Hatch (subject to Hatch's schedule)

Radio FreeRepublic will be broadcasting live from the Judicial Marathon and conducting interviews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Seeking the truth]

bttt

[OXENinFLA]

Looks like it's started already!


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1018630/posts

Reid (D-NV) blocking App. bill for Justice Dept.... Says He'll hold the Floor Until 6pm tonight.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thread 2 !

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[MeekOneGOP]

There we go ! ...

[deport]

Why can't Bill Frist just say we will not be recessed for a Holiday Vacation until we at least have a vote for the Judges?

---

You reckon Fristy has all 51 Pubs on board for a senario like that? Just my guess, but I doubt it....

[sauropod]

I am planning on being in the Senate Gallery toward the end of the week.

[diotima]

That clown Reid is my senator. GRRRR.

[sauropod]

"Option C: Not enough Senators respond and the Sergeant At Arms is dispatched to bring absent Senators to the Chamber to vote."

May I suggest they visit Her Heinous's house first on Witchhaven street?

[diotima]

Awesome. There are some special events being planned, I'll drop you a line when they are finalized. I have a conf call with everyone tomorrow so I should know by then.

[sauropod]

Pls do. Much going on here as well.

[birdsman]

The Senators participating in the filibuster need only ensure that at least one of their number always is present on the floor to speak.

I don't understand this. If there's only 1 democrap present, what's to stop the Republicans from calling for an immediate vote of cloture. As long as there's at least 51 senators present, a cloture vote could be held at any time. It seems to me that the democraps would have to keep all of their people there in order to prevent cloture votes from succeding.

[OXENinFLA]

That clown Reid is my senator. GRRRR.

I fell for ya, I'm from FL.

[Flyer]

Stop the Democrat obstruction of Bush's Judicial Nominees!!

*PING* *PING!*

As always, a FReep mail will get you on or off this Houston topics ping list.

[rwfromkansas]

Frist defended that position on tv the other day and said that these are not the days of Mr. Smith. There are lots of measures that the minority could use to accomplish their obstruction even in face of a fillibuster.

[bert]

You reckon Fristy has all 51 Pubs on board ....

The answer is yes.

Rick /santorem said they could not ove forwaqrd because they don't have the votes. They are moving therefore, they have the votes.

[Keith]

Make it 52...these days, Zell Miller, thankfully, is a DINO...

[deport]

I don't doubt he may have the 51 votes but that wasn't what I was asking.... The poster referred to the notion that Frist should keep them in session with no holidays until the judges were voted on.... Now do you think that Frist has them on board for something like that. I don't know but I could see some grumbling if they couldn't go home, jmo.

[diotima]

Senate Republicans Will Force 'Real' Filibuster During 30-Hour Session
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
November 10, 2003

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- After months of promising conservatives that they will confront the Democrats who are blocking President George W. Bush's judicial nominations, Senate Republicans will force a "real" filibuster to take place on the floor of the United States Senate beginning Wednesday evening.

All 51 members of the Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate will be present for the "Justice For Judges Marathon" starting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday and ending at midnight Friday morning.

The 30-hour debate is expected to demonstrate GOP solidarity behind Bush's judicial nominees. Several of the president's nominees have been prevented from having an up or down vote because of the threat of a filibuster by the Democrats.

During the debate, no other Senate business will take place, including several spending bills, an energy bill, and a Medicare reform package.

As expected, Senate Democrats say they are concerned that the U.S. Senate will be unable to recess by November 21 as planned.

Nevertheless, Senate Republicans believe the time will be well worth it to give the judicial nominees an opportunity to be considered.

"The objective is to get an up or a down vote," remarked Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) to Fox News. "These nominees deserve their day in court."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says this forced filibuster will showcase the obstructionist tactics used by Senate Democrats over the past nine months with Bush's judicial nominations.

"We want to let the American people know how pitiful this process has become," Hatch told Fox News.

Miguel Estrada, William Pryor, Charles Pickering, and Priscilla Owen have all been nominated by Bush and have been the victims of Democrat filibuster threats.

Other federal judicial nominees expected to be filibustered in the next few weeks include Claude Allen, Carolyn Kuhl, Brett Kavanaugh, and Janice Rogers Brown.

John Nowacki, head of a group called Judicial Selection Monitoring Project, says the filibusters conducted by Senate Democrats have less to do with the candidate's inability to be a good judge as it does their ideology.

"I think [the filibuster] demonstrates that no matter how much experience someone has, no matter how much evidence there is of someone's judicial temperament ... no matter what, there's still going to be this opposition [by Senate Democrats]," Nowacki told Agape Press.

A so-called real filibuster allows any member of the U.S. Senate to stand before their fellow lawmakers and speak indefinitely to prevent a vote on the measure before them. Technically, Senate Democrats have not done this yet, but the threat of a filibuster has worked just the same.

However, Senate Republicans will force those who have prevented a vote on these judicial nominees to conduct a filibuster beginning Wednesday evening. It is possible that no Democrats will show up for the special session. If that happens, then the 51 Republican Senators could offer a unanimous consent motion to confirm the judicial nominees.

Senate Republicans say they are prepared for the challenge before them. In fact, they have already worked out sleeping arrangements as well as stocking up on food and drinks for consumption during the session.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) states the Democrats are also prepared for the upcoming "carnival" debate on judicial nominees.

"We are going to set up our action room just off the Senate floor as we have done on other good debates such as this," Daschle told Fox News. "We'll have a presence on the floor for the full 30 hours."

Daschle says this forced debate on judicial nomination is a "misuse of time."

However, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) says the filibuster threats have been the primary waste of time in the U.S. Senate.

"It can't be tolerated. It won't be tolerated," Frist told the Seattle Times. "The goal is to break these partisan filibusters."

No federal judicial nominee by the past 42 presidents has been filibustered in the history of the U.S. Senate dating back to 1784.

Real filibusters in the U.S. Senate are extremely rare. The last one occurred in 1992 when former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) conducted one for over 14 hours in an effort to protect a major business in his state from being adversely effected by a proposed bill. However, the longest and most famous filibuster in U.S. history was in 1957 when the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) spoke for more than 24 hours straight in opposition to a civil rights bill.

Despite the media attention on this event in the U.S. Senate, nobody expects anything to immediately happen as a result of it. Democrats are expected to vote for cloture on the judicial nominees on Friday and, thus, block a vote on the judicial nominees presented. Republicans still need 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to end the debate.

Santorum said he and his fellow Senate Republicans have heard from many conservatives who think they have not been "fighting hard enough." Nevertheless, he says strides are being made, but "there's probably more we could do."

He said the Democrats may appear to be winning the latest battles, but "long term, they're going to lose several wars."

Santorum says the American people should take notice of this issue with the judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate if they see that nothing else is happening.

"I don't believe the public pays attention until we stop doing other things and just do this -- and other things don't get done because of this," he told The Washington Post.

Furthermore, Republicans hope the added exposure of the judicial obstruction by Senate Democrats will motivate Republican voters to get active and participate in the 2004 elections to defeat the Democrats who are blocking the judicial nominees and elect more Republicans to the U.S. Senate.

Republicans assert that if they can pick up even a few more seats in the U.S. Senate in 2004, then they will be able to defeat Democrat filibuster threats.

The marathon debate is expected to be televised in its entirety live on C-SPAN 2. Hourly press conferences will be conducted by Republicans to highlight the delay tactics of the Senate Democrats.

[Humidston]

Aye, aye, Cap'n.
I'm all over it! ;-)

[Keith]

Well, nothing will get the attention of the media like the Senate being forced to be in session because the UnDemocrats won't permit a VOTE!