Excellent research!
The NYT wanted to end the filibuster when the GOP minority used it......It's the usual double standard!
For the NYT the Dems can do no wrong and the GOP is always wrong.
thank you sooo much for pinging me to this, julie :o) i LOVE to see the leftist double standards documented!
Check THIS out. A recent speech (2-17-2005) by John Cornyn (R-Texas):
(Texas Senator John Cornyn's)
Floor Speech: Judicial NominationsExcerpt:
So my question is, to whom is the distinguished Democratic leader [Harry Reid] referring? None of President Bush's nominees have been turned down by the Senate-- none, zero. The nominees he referred to were denied a vote altogether. In fact, all of these nominees would have been confirmed last Congress had majorities been allowed to govern as they have during the entire history of this country and the entire history of the Senate -- save and except for the time when Democrats chose to deny a majority the opportunity for an up-or-down vote.
So I would say, correcting the record, it is a little difficult to turn down a nominee, as the minority leader has said, if the nominee never gets an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.
Now, the second part I would like to correct is that when the Democratic leader was asked whether obstruction would create a 60-vote threshold for all future judicial nominees, he said:
It's always been a 60-vote for judges. There is -- nothing change[d].
He said:
Go back many, many, many years. Go back decades and it's always been that way.
Well, we took his advice, and we did go back over the years.
It turns out it has not always been that way. Indeed, there has never, ever, ever been a refusal to permit an up-or-down vote with a bipartisan majority standing ready to confirm judges in the history of the Senate until these last 2 years. Many nominees have, in fact, been confirmed by a vote of less than 60 Senators.
In fact, the Senate has consistently confirmed judges who enjoyed a majority but not 60-vote support, including Clinton appointees Richard Paez, William Fletcher, and Susan Oki Mollway; and Carter appointees Abner Mikva and L.T. Senter.
Click HERE for the full article.