Posted on 02/24/2005 6:33:13 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter warned on Thursday that an impending showdown over President Bush (news - web sites)'s judicial nominees could lead to turmoil in the Republican-led Senate.
Specter said if fellow Republicans invoke the "nuclear option" by changing the Senate's rules to ban procedural hurdles against the nominees, Democrats could as promised retaliate with other moves of their own to "screw things up."
"If we have a 'nuclear option,' the Senate will be in turmoil and the Judiciary Committee will be hell," Specter said. "We can take an extended foreign trip, all of us."
Specter, a moderate, drew fire from conservatives last year when he suggested opponents of abortion rights might have difficulty winning Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court. He eased their concerns by promising to ensure Bush's nominees got a quick Senate vote.
Bush put Senate Republicans and Democrats on a collision course last week when he renominated 20 judicial nominees who failed to win Senate confirmation during his first term. In addition, the president may soon have the opportunity to make his first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites).
"I'm going to exercise every last ounce of my energy to solve this problem (of stalled judicial nominees) without 'the nuclear option,"' Specter of Pennsylvania told a news conference.
A number of Senate Republicans have voiced support for "the nuclear option," saying minority Democrats cannot be allowed to stop Bush's nominees.
CHANGING THE RULES
Yet some Republicans have expressed concerns that changing the rules could prevent action on other legislation and come back to haunt them in a future Democratic-led Senate. It is unclear whether Republicans could muster the 51 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to change the rules.
Specter, asked his position on "the nuclear option," said, "I have not made a judgment on it. As I've said before, I'd prefer not to come to that bridge. I'm certainly not going to jump off the bridge until I come to it."
Democrats were encouraged by Specter's comments, saying he recognized the role the Constitution envisions for Senate in providing advice on lifetime judicial nominations.
Yet some Republicans privately voiced concerns, with one Senate aide saying Specter "provided the enemy aid and comfort."
Democrats had denounced many of Bush's failed judicial candidates as "right-wing extremists." They blocked 10 nominees with procedural hurdles known as filibusters. More than a dozen others were left hanging when Congress came to a close last year. Democrats did, however, help confirm 204 of Bush's judicial nominees.
Specter intends to hold hearings next week on four of the renominated judicial candidates -- circuit court nominees William Myers and Terrence Boyle and district court nominees Robert Conrad and James Dever.
All four seem certain to win the approval of Specter's Judiciary Committee. But confirmation by the full Senate is uncertain. Republicans hold the Senate with 55 seats, yet 60 votes are needed to end the extended debate of a filibuster.
Specter's news conference came a week after he announced that he has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a treatable cancer of the lymph system. The 75-year-old senator reiterated that he expects to carry out his duties between treatments.
Time for Anal Sphincter to take a vacation, permanently and take care of his health! He looks so ridiculous on TV with that Patch for "Corns/Bunions" on his nose! It looks like someone turned up the juice on the Kimo Dial!
Time for Anal Sphincter to take a vacation, permanently and take care of his health! He looks so ridiculous on TV with that Patch for "Corns/Bunions" on his nose! It looks like someone turned up the juice on the Kimo Dial!
The Republican Party should change it's motto to,
'We Waste Mandates'
good point
---"We can take an extended foreign trip, all of us." -----
Suits me. The less they get done, the less time they spend screwing the rest of us.
Hey Frist - Democrats are NOT your friends. They HATE YOUR GUTS. Do you understand that? And RINOs like Specter are just as bad.
Paging Pat Toomey.
Don't get mad at Arlen Specter. We knew his colors quite a while ago. Its the leadership that let him keep his chairmanship after he was caught declaring he wouldn't let conservative judges through his committee that should be pummeled IMHO>
What Judiciary Committee? See how easy that was?
Specter, a moderate
RINO, drew fire from conservatives last year when he suggested opponents of abortion rights might have difficulty winning Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court. He eased their concerns by promising to ensure Bush's nominees got a quick Senate vote.
So we see the real reason for his whine, he looses his power when the rules are changed, as well he should.
Screw Specter. Period.
www.StopSpecterNow.com
www.PoliticsPA.com
do you know how many form letters my "conservative" senator - John Kyl sent in reply to my pleas to NOT confirm this fraud? 3 THREE!!!! it was all just blah blah blah.
McCain and now Kyl. both jokes. one is a RINO, AND THE OTHER IS A PHONY.
The spectre of this Senator is sickening!
Agreed. They should stop talking and get to work.
If Frist wants to have any chance of being Prez in 2008, he sure as heck better deliver here.
If he can't, he's toast.
Did you ever notice you never see balls on the Republican Elephant. It's very symbolic.
for TTJ.
I wish Specter good health; but I also wish he'd STFU
It goes back to his race against Toomey(sp?).
The GOP in PA had a true consevative who could have won but they chose this POS instead.
Don't matter, I still hate him!
Why doesn't Specter tell this to the Democrats? They are the ones that instigated this situation.
I have been waiting all day for someone to post this article!!!
Did any of you see the press conference this morning on C-span? I only saw bits and pieces, but I heard enough to know that Specter went back on his promise---
He told a reporter that asked him about the nuclear option if he would use it and he said not at all unless maybe a Supreme court nominee---
They asked him about the rumblings about a constitutional amendment to let someone like Schwarzenegger be president and he said yes he would be for it---when asked if he would "push" for the amendment this year, he said it was down on his list of things to get accomplished---
Folks, I gotta tell you, from the little I got to hear, he has gone just as squishy as Laura Ingraham and we said he would when we bombarded Frist and other senators in November!!!
Damn, I hate it!!!!!
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