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Feinstein, Boxer hint at erosion of Senate civility
The San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 5/25/05

Posted on 05/25/2005 11:06:04 AM PDT by South40

Democrats say they feel bullied by Republican rule

WASHINGTON – California's two senators may have voiced delight about the Monday compromise that averted a showdown on the filibuster, but the GOP's threat to abolish one of the most potent political weapons available to Democrats clearly left sore feelings toward Republicans and the White House.

"Today, there is not really active consultation by this administration in most cases," Sen. Dianne Feinstein told her colleagues this week. "Instead, there appears to be a kind of disregard for the opinions of all Democratic senators."

Sen. Barbara Boxer had similar sentiments, telling her colleagues that Republicans and President Bush have demonstrated "an arrogance of power." Republicans, she said in a Senate speech last week, "did not get enough of what they want . . . and they are throwing a fit."

A partisan fight over the confirmations of federal appellate court nominees Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown evolved in recent weeks into an arguably more important battle over whether to preserve the filibuster, a Senate tradition allowing a minority of lawmakers to stage unlimited debate that blocks a vote on something, or someone, they oppose.

Feinstein and Boxer, both part of the Senate's Democratic minority, argued that doing away with the filibuster would create such ill feelings that the chamber would become a rancorous place ruled by passions rather than reason.

"The Senate will most certainly face a loss of civility, a loss of respect for differences," Feinstein said in a Senate speech Monday. "Political messages will overwhelm substantive policy, and political potshots will drive our debates, rather than the best interest of the American people."

Meanwhile, Boxer sought to portray the president as something of a spoiled autocrat by noting the Senate had approved 208 of his judicial nominees and rejected 10.

"This is a 95 percent success rate," Boxer said. "I ask the people of this country to think about what it would mean in their lives if they got 95 percent of what they wanted."

On Monday, Senate leaders struck a compromise: Democrats agreed to stand aside and allow swift votes on three circuit court nominees, including Owen and Brown, and to withhold filibusters on future circuit court and Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances." In return, the GOP agreed it would not change Senate rules to prevent filibusters on judicial nominees.

Feinstein and Boxer have argued that Owen and Brown are too conservative for lifetime appointments to the federal bench. While each called Monday's compromise "a victory" for Senate tradition, their remarks in the past days revealed long-simmering sentiments about how the GOP has operated in Congress and the White House over the years.

"Checks and balances are not new," Feinstein told her colleagues. "Our country's 200-year tradition of working through our differences is not new. The need for consultation is not new. . . . What is new is the majority party's decision that if you win an election, you should have absolute power."

Some Republicans have suggested that Feinstein and Boxer acted hypocritically, because in the past, each called on Republicans to stop delaying tactics that prevented the Senate from voting on some of former President Clinton's judicial nominees.

On Sept. 16, 1999, Feinstein said "a nominee is entitled to a vote. Vote them up; vote them down," she said when conservatives tried to block votes on two nominees to California's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "If we don't like them, we can vote against them. That is the honest thing to do. If there are things in their background, in their abilities that don't pass muster, vote no."

On Jan. 28, 1998, the day the Senate confirmed Barry Silverman to the 9th Circuit, Boxer said that whether "the delays are on the Republican side or the Democratic side, let these names come up, let us have debate, let us vote."

Feinstein acknowledged that six years ago, when Senate Republicans tried to block the Clinton judicial nominees, "many of us . . . were frustrated."

"At that time, I urged my colleagues to allow a vote," Feinstein said in her speech Monday. "However, I did not advocate breaking the (Senate) rules . . . as a way to force Republicans to their knees."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: 109th; civility; clowns; feces; fleabags; harlots; maird; mange; mildew; mold; perverts; potcallskettleblack; rot; scum; skanks; smegma; ussenate; vomit; whores
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To: South40
"The Senate will most certainly face a loss of civility, a loss of respect for differences," Feinstein said in a Senate speech Monday. "Political messages will overwhelm substantive policy, and political potshots will drive our debates, rather than the best interest of the American people."

Civility? Was Ted Kennedy's outrageous behavior considered civil? The problem is that in the past, Republicans have always been too meek. Now that they have finally shown a little bit of spine the RATS thinks they're being uncivil. Good grief, if any Republican went into a tirade spewing venom about Boxer, Feinstein or Reid, like Kennedy does, they would go into coronary arrest. This is the reason that the RATS hate Tom DeLay. They can't push him around. He would tell them to shove it, in a gentlemanly way, of course. LOL

DeLay/Tancredo 2008!!!!

41 posted on 05/25/2005 11:55:30 AM PDT by NRA2BFree (We've been sold out by spineless, gutless TRAITORS again!!!! They made a deal with the devil...)
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To: South40
"Instead, there appears to be a kind of disregard for the opinions of all Democratic senators." It's kind of difficult to have high regard for 'Sinators' who lie and dissemble, defend the indefensible and promote degeneracy as enlightenment. [With all that's happened in House and Senate this week, I'm hard pressed to decide who won the elections in 2004!
42 posted on 05/25/2005 11:55:53 AM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: South40
"Today, there is not really active consultation by this administration in most cases," Sen. Dianne Feinstein told her colleagues this week. "Instead, there appears to be a kind of disregard for the opinions of all Democratic senators."

Let me repeat for Sen. Feinstein something I heard alot following the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996:

We won. You Lost.

Get over it.

See how thaty works/feels, Babs?

43 posted on 05/25/2005 11:56:31 AM PDT by chs68
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To: South40
Democrats say they feel bullied by Republican rule

May I be the first to tell these two b!tches to "put some ice on that"

44 posted on 05/25/2005 11:56:45 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (June 14 - Defeat (Pat) DeWine - Vote Tom Brinkman for Congress (OH-2) - http://www.gobrinkman.com)
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Cry more. If you're quitting, can I have your stuff?

(Oops, I thought I was on the WoW boards for a second there.)

45 posted on 05/25/2005 11:58:58 AM PDT by vollmond (Head back to base for debriefing and cocktails.)
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To: South40
"At that time, I urged my colleagues to allow a vote," Feinstein said in her speech Monday. "However, I did not advocate breaking the (Senate) rules . . . as a way to force Republicans to their knees."

Breaking Senate rules?

Who in the Senate has ever advocated breaking the rules of the Senate??!!

There was some talk of changing the rules of the Senate to bring the Senate's procedures more in line with U.S. Constitution.

46 posted on 05/25/2005 11:59:50 AM PDT by chs68
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To: GoLightly
The article called the 7 pikers "leaders".

I'm sure it did.

47 posted on 05/25/2005 12:05:04 PM PDT by Lou L
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To: South40

I wish these two clowns would leave ala Thelma and Louise. Of course I said that about those other two clowns - Donna Shelaila and Hazel O'Leary also. Oh well......


48 posted on 05/25/2005 12:05:42 PM PDT by patriot_wes (papal infallibility - a proud tradition since 1869)
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To: South40

Boxer's responsible for a good deal of erosion of civility in the Senate.


49 posted on 05/25/2005 12:06:24 PM PDT by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington (Re-elect Dino Rossi in 2005!)
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To: South40

Feinstein and Boxer are part of the cause of the erosion.


50 posted on 05/25/2005 12:32:34 PM PDT by TommyDale
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To: lilylangtree

Suppose it was Kennedy calling a female, minority nominee for the federal bench that was voted for by 87% of the residents of one of the most liberal states in the US a "neanderthal" that tipped off these two sleuths?


51 posted on 05/25/2005 12:35:55 PM PDT by IamConservative (To worry is to misuse your imagination.)
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To: PeoplesRepublicOfWashington

I agree! She is one of the most uncivil persons in the Senate. She reminds me of an evil bug that needs swatting or stomping.


52 posted on 05/25/2005 12:37:36 PM PDT by PeskyOne
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To: South40

It's ironic that Boxer and Feinstein are the SOURCE OF THE EROSION OF CIVILITY.

You are in the minority! Now say it a hundred times and let it sink in.


53 posted on 05/25/2005 1:00:35 PM PDT by dmanLA
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To: dmanLA

As a Californian, I find those two to be an utter and complete embarrassment.


54 posted on 05/25/2005 1:14:52 PM PDT by South40 (Amnesty for ILLEGALS is a slap in the face to the USBP!)
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To: South40

"This is a 95 percent success rate," Boxer said. "I ask the people of this country to think about what it would mean in their lives if they got 95 percent of what they wanted."

We'd all be a damn sight happier?
Especially if we didn't have to fight 40% of the population
that was trying to keep us from having any thing our way.


55 posted on 05/25/2005 5:34:09 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: South40

"Instead, there appears to be a kind of disregard for the opinions of all Democratic senators."

I don't disregard them. But you don't want to know
WHAT I regard them. (My mom would've washed out my
mouth with soap.)


56 posted on 05/25/2005 5:37:46 PM PDT by righttackle44 (The most dangerous weapon in the world is a Marine with his rifle and the American people behind him)
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To: fortunecookie

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

Fire burn and cauldron bubble...


57 posted on 05/25/2005 9:18:10 PM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: tet68
"This is a 95 percent success rate," Boxer said. "I ask the people of this country to think about what it would mean in their lives if they got 95 percent of what they wanted."

Judging by the election returns last time, I would be living in Idaho!

58 posted on 05/25/2005 9:20:58 PM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: South40
As a former Californian, I find those two to be an utter and complete embarrassment.
59 posted on 05/25/2005 9:22:12 PM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Sir Francis Dashwood

Exactly! Whenever I hear those ladies mentioned (or Hillary for that matter) that rhyme comes to mind!


60 posted on 05/25/2005 9:23:49 PM PDT by fortunecookie
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