Posted on 05/24/2005 2:44:50 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
In the afterglow of the bipartisan accord announced Monday night to avert a Senate showdown on changing the filibuster rule, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist emphasized Tuesday that he wasn’t a party to the deal and would quickly try to implement the rule change if Democrats resumed use of the filibuster to derail President Bush’s judicial nominees.
Frist’s proposal, which he calls “the constitutional option,” and which his foes call “the nuclear option” would lower the threshold for ending Senate debate on a judicial nominee from 60 to 51.
Monday night’s bipartisan deal prevented a vote on Frist’s proposal, as seven GOP senators promised to vote against it.
“The constitutional option will be used if… mindless, irresponsible filibusters become the tool of choice for the Democrats,” Frist told reporters.
Thus Frist made it clear only 18 hours after the accord was announced just how brittle it was. It seemed that a decisive vote over filibusters of judicial nominees had only been deferred for a while.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The Senate's 81-18 agreement to vote on the nominee prevented a vote on Frist's proposal.
Maybe the actions of the RINO compromisers will so incense those Republicans who were left out of the loop
that it will solidify their vote for the nuke option.
I don't know...I don't know the ins and outs...maybe I am just grasping at straws here.
From what I have gathered, Frist is no longer in charge. Six dems and six rino's are. Has Bush spoken out on this today? (I just got home from work.)
Frist making a joke, what a threat. Which ever.
Naw...he hasn't got the balls.
Sorry, but I don't understand all the anger with Frist. He did and continues to do all he can to get the Senate Pubs to do the right thing. He has no control over the RINOs. Those scoundrels acted against his wishes.
I'm having an extreme circumstance with my nail polish today.
That's the same term the Congressional Black Caucus called it, except they were referring to Democrats.
This is the problem. Frist, and the other loyal Republicans have to be willing to go into the minority and make this a case of Party Discipline. If Graham was correct there are 5 solid RINO votes against Frist and 4 or so undecided. He has to hold all of the undecided to win.
"Become"??
How about "remain"?
If Frist really feels that way about the 7 usurping his power, he needs to call a Republican Caucus meeting tonight and call for a vote to strip all of them of all their committee and subcommittee chairmanships, and kick Lindsey Graham off the Judiciary Committee. He can kick ass and take names if he wants to. You can bet a Democrat majority leader would do it if a bunch of his members pulled the rug out from under him.
"Huge?" Try massive! I know that a lot of the liberal lawyers here in this office are just rolling on the floor happy and laughing at the RINOcrats for this. So, if this bunch of leftists, socialists, communist pukes are happy, then I know it is bad. Absolutely, unequivocally bad.
I can be upset with Frist because he allowed this to go on too long. He allowed the children (democrats) to keep up their temper tantrum.
When you have a child who throws temper tantrums, you put a stop to it quickly and not by caving in to them.
I don't know. If Grahams appearance on Sean Hannity's radio show is any indication of the whuppin' he is taking elsewhere, Graham may have learned his lesson.
Pssst. They are stupid. They think they won. They will feel differently in six months.
This whole situation is a lot of nonsense that has been completely blown out of proportion for a number of reasons. The first time any of these seven GOP senators (particularly Graham, DeWine, or Warner) is seen as obstructing a Bush nominee in any way, their political careers are basically over -- because they'll either lose their next primary battle in their home state, or spend so much money defending themselves against a conservative challenger that they'll lose in the general election.
Graham will rue the day he crossed the voters.....he forgot who put him there.
Lindsey can whimper now.....he will pay for this treachery at the polls.
If Graham has learned his lesson, then he can pull out of the deal and support the constitutional option at the first filibuster.
Otherwise, he can go to hell as soon as he gets dumped out of office in the '08 primary.
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