Posted on 01/04/2005 2:06:11 PM PST by hinterlander
But the Democrats already used this rule twice when Robert Byrd was Sen Majority Leader.
Again, you have to look at just who those 55 Republican senators are. You'll find that a whole lot of them are worthless RINOs who often cannot be counted on to stand with the party.
Bill Frist is not responsible for, nor can he do anything about, the fact that there are enough entrenched RINOs in the Senate to throw all kinds of monkey wrenches into the conservative agenda. To paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, "You go to war with the Senate you have, not the Senate you'd wish to have."
----Dems never had a problem like that. Heck, they are doing more with 41 Senators than the Pubs are doing with 59.----
Of course the Dems never had a problem like that -- at just about any given point before 1994, they either didn't have as many defectors in their ranks, or they had a large enough majority that it didn't matter. And they're certainly able to do a great deal with 45 senators: Now that Zell Miller's gone, every single damn Democrat in the Senate marches in lockstep. The GOP, unfortunately, has to deal with its share of troublemakers.
The solution, of course, is for the voters in these RINOs' respective states to get rid of the bastards. That's not up to Frist.
-Dan
"Some I know have suggested that the filibusters of the last Congress are reason enough to offer a procedural change today, right here and right now," Frist said Tuesday in his statement. "But at this moment I do not chose that path. Our Democratic colleagues have new leadership, and in the spirit of bipartisanship, I want to extend my hand across the aisle."
Democrats, however, have shown little willingness to cooperate with Frist and allow the Senate to vote on Bush's judicial nominees. In fact, when Bush renominated 20 judicial candidates on Dec. 23 who didn't win confirmation in the 108th Congress, Democrats immediately pounced on the President.
"I was extremely disappointed to learn today that the president intends to begin the new Congress by resubmitting the nomination of extremist judicial nominees," Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) said in a statement at the time. "Last Congress, Senate Democrats worked with the President to approve 204 judicial nominees, rejecting only 10 of the most extreme."
Man! I hope Frist knows what he's doin'!
I know the 'RATS certainly are shameless and have no sense of honor.
The Senate sorta sounding like the UN. Wonder why.
Frist is seeking to use the democraps obstructionism against them in 2006 ... at the expense of having real Constitutionalist appointed, but then Frist doesn't give a hoot in hell for what is right only what increases political power. He's disgustingly transparent!
Frist should know better than I, but I think this was a mistake.
There are those who will argue that that's the price they should pay, but the Dems can put up 1 guy at a time for one hell of along time. Dems can go about their regular life, while all the pubbies are sleeping in their offices.
I think that FR cares MOST about what the media does, which is why so many people spend so much time documenting it and discussing it.
Were you here during the all-night Estrada debate in the Senate? We were watching and discussing strategy all night long, yet the media said hardly a word about it. I do believe that Frist is considering the media impacts as part of his strategy, and is choosing the strategy of giving the Democrats enough rope to hang themselves.
-PJ
(censored!))))
-PJ
I called it this morning like so many of us here on this forum. GWB never had any intentions of radically changing the course of the judiciary in this nation because it would go against the status quo and the elitism that he represents. Without an activist court certain segments of our population couldn't do what they want and get away with it. Would a conservative court or a constructionist allow a President to essentially enter the USA into trade treaties without applying Constitutional measures? I think not and with a weak and liberal court the elite can do what they damn well please and get away with it.
Bull Streisand!! They didn't reject the nominees (who were not extreme anyway). They blocked them from a vote. If they had allowed a vote, the nominees would have won overwhelmingly because many democrats who were willing to hide behind a filibuster would not have been willining to go on record with a NO vote against highly qualified minority and women jurists. The fact that the democrats are already putting out this kind of partisan BS is proof that a rule change is needed immediately. They do not intend to allow any reasonable judges on the highest of the appellate courts to receive a confirmation vote at all.
Frist is NOT a RINO and frankly I'm sick of the half cocked use of the term by so many individuals around here. Frist IS though, being either really naive or really spineless on this issue.
I am worried the little bastard will end up not holding his promise, but if he pulls that crap, he will feel our wrath like he never has felt before.
Or, hopefully, it is part of the Pub strategery to wait until the Rats try it again, then change the rules in response.
On the other hand, never before has an obstructionist party prevented so many nominees from receiving a floor vote. Iirc, the pubbies once used this technique on a few atrocious nominees. Payback has been hell.
This is no big surpriose. It's the same bunch of spineless wimps more concerned with feathering their own nests than in serving the people who elected them.
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