LIVE SENATE THREAD: "Nuclear Wednesday" for judicial nominations: C-span 2 - 9:30 am EST

C-span 2 ^ | May 18, 2005

[ken5050]

Welcome, all you Freepers, to the continuing C-span soap operas about judicial nominations. "The Guiding SEARCHLIGHT, " "As the SENATE Turns, "One NOMINATION to Live" "GERIATRIC Hospital" (for all you Byrd and Lautenberg fans out there). Follow along with us, as the Dems raise the level of histrionics, bloviation, pontification, and all around bad acting to new highs, er, lows...

[ken5050]

The Senate is scheduled to convene at 9:30 am EST. If it's shown, pay attention to the opening prayer from the Senate Chaplin. Sometimes, on really big days, they add a little something "extra" to their "message"

BTW, for all my fellow political junkies out there, here's a little tidbit for you. It's said by many talking heads and pundits that only recently has the level of anger, indeed political bitterness, risen to such levels in Congress..well, here's a gem of an except ( and one of MY all time fav political quotes) from Sen William Borah (R-Idaho) from his speech on the Senate floor during the 1940 debate of FDR's Lend-Lease bill...

Borah was passionately against American involvement in the war in Europe, and was convinced FDR was secretly scheming to get the USA involved. He said that Lend-Lease, if passed "..will PLOW UNDER every FOURTH American boy.." As pure political vitriol, it's hard to top that...

For those of you old enough to remember the great American political novel of the 60's.... Alan Drury's "Advise and Consent"....( and, sadly, the lousy movie they made of it) during the interminable quorum calls and Dem rants, it might be fun to see which characters from the book and movie have present-day namesakes. My take so far..

Sen Seabright B. Cooley ( played brilliantly by Charles Laughton in the film...this is an easy one...Robert "Sheets" Byrd

Sen Fred(erica) van Ackerman..the hard left, Senate troublemaker, and the evil villian in the book.......Barbara Boxer...and..

yes folks..one of the characters in the book is a senator from Utah named......"Orrin" Knox...who knew?

I'll be in a meeting for a few hours..(darn it!!)..will rejoin you all about noon...Rush should be a blast today..

One suggestion for those who miss it live. C-span will most likely rerun the debate several times tonight. Their practice, fortuitously, in re-showing long Senate sessions..they cull all the quorum calls,the extranious fluff, and even those speeches that are boring..( can you say Lautenberg, and Jeffords..Hello?) So you can probably catch the good stuff...

So, what to expect today?

Frist is playing his card close to the vest, and rightly so. Keep the Dems off balance. The tone of the debate will be set in the opening remarks by both leaders. Will Reid continue to be nasty? It's expected that Frist will call up the nomination of Owens, and allow for 100 hours of debate, then invoke cloture, ( which ytakes 2 additional days) and if that fails, then move to change the rule. However, if the dems are really petty and obstructionist, he may well move for the rules change immediately.

What I'd love to see today..first thing..a warning shot across Reid's desk...have Cheney in the chair today as presiding officer... the Dems would go bananas..

Enjoy....

[Calpernia]

Live Thread Ping

[ken5050]

FYI..this is the place to be..please ping your lists, and apologies in advance if I missed anyone...

[Semper Paratus]

Or as Schumer said yesterday: "Cheney,Cheney,Cheney,Cheney,".

[Unknown Freeper]

Ken, thanks for the thread. I understand that today will be debate but we may not see any decisions before Friday. Let's hope things move forward and that those who are wrong are shown for who they really are.

[ken5050]

Special "Swamp Fox" ping just for you...(g)

[Howlin]

Here we go! (Maybe)

[Ron in Acreage]

I don't believe anything will happen except the GOP RINOS caving to the dems and media hacks. The so called "nuclear option" will fail. With or without Cheney. We will have some GOP primaries to take care of this '06.

[Ron in Acreage]

I've heard next tuesday at the earliest.

[DCPatriot]

Thanks for the ping, Howlin.

Let's GO!

[CWW]

I just want to warn everyone in advance not to expect a quick result today. They are going to allow a day or two of debate on Pricilla Owen before they call for the vote. It may be early next week before the filibuster rule is actually eliminated.

Don't get frustrated -- Remember, Joe Six-pack will just be tuning in and we want them to see that the nominee is being fully debated (forget the fact that her nomination has been pending for 4 years.

Be patient!

[Carolinamom]

Thanks! Let's toast to the Reid et al being burnt TOAST.

[savedbygrace]

Senate President Cheney in the Chair - Yer nasty, ken.

I like the way you think.

[Calpernia]

Let's not forgot a lot of the RINOs have had a recent hard slap (base closings)

A lot of the RINOs are starting to sweat. Info will be coming out on that IRS investigation.

We have more cards to play now.

[OXENinFLA]

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

The Senate convened at 9:45 a.m. and adjourned at 6:33 p.m. Three record votes were taken.

Next Senate meeting: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 9:30 a.m.: Proceed to Executive Session to begin consideration of the nomination of Priscilla Owen to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit.

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LIVE THREAD PING!!!

[Miss Marple]

I will check in later...need to run an errand. Nothing good will happen in the first cople of hours, IMHO. They will be feeling out the other side, jockeying for position, etc.

But then, what do I know? LOL!

[ken5050]

Frist palns to allow 100 hours of debate...I hope he keeps the SDenenate in session very, very late..into the wee hours every day..and even through the weekend..He can play nasty also..BTW..doncha love my reference to Sheets as Seabright B. Cooley?

[PilloryHillary]

Thank you for the ping! I HOPE the republicans are ready to rumble!

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[Lazamataz]

Good job. If they fail to act, then they actively fail.