Posted on 05/12/2005 9:26:44 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON - Irritated by Democratic chiding, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday defended the "fairness and principle" of pressing a confrontation over judicial filibusters.
During an hourlong exchange, Senate dean Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., told Frist, "Don't leave this as your legacy." That was a reference to a Republican plan to eliminate minority Democrats' ability to block President Bush's judicial choices with just 41 votes in the 100-member Senate.
"You have a shirttail full of nominees, and you're going to wreck Senate tradition," Byrd said.
Annoyed, Frist pointed out that Byrd had promised to support holding confirmation votes.
"Didn't you also say as the other part of that statement to the president of the United States, being critical of the potential legacy I might have to leave in order to stand up for fairness and principle, didn't you also say you would give all of these nominees up-or-down votes?" asked Frist, who is expected to leave the Senate in 2006.
"I don't remember what I said," Byrd replied, "a few or all or three or four, I don't remember."
Bush has repeatedly called for yes-or-no votes requiring a simple majority of 51 on his choices to fill appeals court vacancies instead of making them first garner 60 votes.
Frist has been looking for two years at doing away with the 60-vote requirement to cut off debate in what members of both parties call "the nuclear option." Democrats have promised to retaliate by thwarting Bush's legislative agenda.
"Don't travel that path because the leader of his party may some day be executed on the same gallows," Byrd said.
Republicans have argued that the Constitution requires confirmation votes, though Frist conceded Thursday there's no language in the document that specifies that.
"But when you have a nominee that comes over, all you can do is shine the light, you examine him, unlimited debate," Frist said. "And then to give advice and consent — which is in that Constitution — how do you do it? Vote yes, no. Confirm, reject."
Byrd noted that the Senate has rejected dozens of nominees over the years by simply never voting on them. "Now to give consent, we may vote. But to deny consent doesn't require a vote," he said.
The West Virginia senator kept talking, but Frist eventually walked out of the chamber, leaving Byrd surprised. "Where's my adversary?" he asked.
The tense debate may be only a precursor of the battle next week, when Frist is expected to turn to the first of the White House's blocked nominees.
Democrats blocked 10 of Bush's first-term nominees through filibuster threats and have threatened to do the same to seven of them Bush renominated after winning re-election in November.
Frist has threatened to disallow future filibusters and force a confirmation vote on former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, Idaho lawyer William Myers, Texas judge Priscilla Owen, California judge Janice Rogers Brown and other nominees Democrats oppose.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has been offering Frist deals on less controversial nominees to try to avoid the showdown.
Reid on Thursday promised that Democrats would not block confirmation votes on Michigan nominees Richard Griffin, David McKeague and Susan Neilson to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if Frist didn't force a showdown. He made the same offer on former Senate lawyer Thomas Griffith, who wants a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
"Do you want to confirm judges or do you want to provoke a fight?" Reid said.
Democrats have blocked the Michigan nominees' approval because of the objections of Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who were upset because President Clinton's nominees to that court were never given a confirmation hearing by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Levin and Stabenow said they hoped that withdrawing their objection to most of Bush's Michigan nominees would help resolve the filibuster impasse.
Reid also said Democrats would likely filibuster a fourth Michigan nominee, Henry Saad. "All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI and I think you would all agree that there's a problem there," Reid told the Senate.
Reid did not say what was in the report, and he was criticized by conservatives for mentioning it. "With his unsubstantiated charges, Senator Reid unfairly and irresponsibly defames Judge Saad," said Jeffrey Mazzella, president of the Center For Individual Freedom.
The Judiciary Committee sent Pryor's nomination to the full Senate on Thursday, on a 10-8 vote, with all Republicans supporting and all Democrats opposing him.
Pryor, the former Alabama attorney general, holds a temporary seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta because Bush last year circumvented the Senate and placed him on the court while lawmakers were out of town. That term expires at the end of the year.
___
On the Net:
Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov
Byrd is losing it. I think Shelley Capito could beat him if she ran.
Talking about traditions, the tradition of the Senate is freedom of speech, freedom of debate, freedom to dissent.Mr. President, this reminds me very much of a book in the Bible, a book that is titled Esther, the Book of Esther. I think it would be especially good for the distinguished majority leader to be reminded of the Book of Esther in the Bible.
[Rambling retelling of Book of Esther, then Byrd is told that his time is up. Reid gives Byrd another hour.]
I have the floor. Thank God for the Senate, I said, when I was in that body over there.
Finally, I say to my good leader, I will pose a rhetorical question. How much land does a man need
[Rambling retelling of a Tolstoy story]...
Mr. President, I see the leader has left.
He left me all alone here.
What about this?
Hey, where is my adversary?
Where is my worthy adversary?
Come on now.
Where is the leader?
Am I to be left here alone to be gored by the horns of those--where is my adversary?
He is not to be found.
Anyhow, let me bring this long story to an end. In the end, the man was crawling on his hands and knees.
More Byrd rambling, from the Congressional Record, May 12, 2005.
Mr. President, this reminds me very much of a book in the Bible, a book that is titled Esther, the Book of Esther.No wonder Frist walked out when Byrd finished this tale and started to tell the Tolstoy tale.I think it would be especially good for the distinguished majority leader to be reminded of the Book of Esther in the Bible.
I won't go into it all here, but Esther was a Jew.
She had a cousin who sat at the king's gate every day
. He was a Jew. His name was Mordecai. The word went out that a man who had been favored by the king, a man named Haman--H-A-M-A-N, I believe it is.
Here is my Bible. This is the King James version of the Bible.
I don't read any other version of the Bible except the King James version. I speak as a born-again Christian.
We hear that thrown around a lot around here. I am a born-again Christian and have been since 1946.
My wife and I will soon be married, the Lord willing, in about 16 or 17 more days, 68 years.
We were both put under the water in that old churchyard pool under the apple orchard in West Virginia, the old Missionary Baptist Church there.
Both Erma and I went under the water.
So I speak as a born-again Christian.
You hear that term thrown around.
I have never made a big whoop-de-do about being a born-again Christian, but I speak as a born-again Christian.
Hear me all you evangelicals out there, hear me.
So here we were, we were baptized.
But getting back to Esther,...[rambling retelling of Book of Esther]
Of course he hasn't, apparently because being a "Christian" to him means little if anything other than a swim in the ole' pool. Has his faith no value to him? No guidance? No purpose? No meaning?
Isn't "...I speak as a born-again Christian." clearly aimed to have a desired (political) effect? So he says he doesn't make a "big whoop" about it, but uses it to serve his purposes here.
That's dispicable.
God bless him, please, he needs it.
Of course he hasn't, apparently because being a "Christian" to him means little if anything other than a swim in the ole' pool. Has his faith no value to him? No guidance? No purpose? No meaning?
Isn't "...I speak as a born-again Christian." clearly aimed to have a desired (political) effect? So he says he doesn't make a "big whoop" about it, but uses it to serve his purposes here.
That's dispicable.
God bless him, please, he needs it.
dang... sorry for the double post... unintentional
And his dawg, Billie.
Senate dean Robert Byrd, D-W.Va....
Heh- This superannuated clown is a world class bullshit artist and intimidator. He's channeled billions in Federal spending projects to West Virgina including a remote FBI facility. So the guy is 85 and still bullying people? Screw him, pull the plug.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., told Frist, "
---
I think that Cheney might have had a little more proper of a response for Frist to give Byrd. I am a huge fan of the comment the veep had for Senator Leaky.
"The usual suspects."
For sure.
These are the "love children" of MSM.
MSM calls them "mavericks" or "independent," but I don't notice them calling Zell Miller those kind words.
It's been difficult for many of us to contact some of the swing Republican senators by phone, because of busy signals, to ask them to vote YES for the Constitutional option, so it might be best to just contact them via the web.
Senator John Warner is especially difficult, so here's the link to send him your message. Just click & fill out the form and give him your brief message:
http://warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm
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