Posted on 06/03/2005 5:30:20 AM PDT by conservativecorner
The White House is preparing to send a raft of new judicial nominations to the Senate in the next few weeks, according to Republican strategists inside and outside the administration -- a move that could challenge the durability of last week's bipartisan filibuster deal and reignite the political warfare it was intended to halt.
The Bush administration has been vetting candidates for 30 more federal district and appeals court vacancies that have been left open for months while the Senate battled over previous nominations stalled by Democrats. Now that Democrats have agreed not to filibuster any new candidates except in "extraordinary circumstances," Republicans are eager to test the proposition.
"Republicans feel this is a good moment to move forward with judicial nominations," said Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group formed by C. Boyden Gray, who was White House counsel under President Bush's father, to support the current president's judicial appointments. "It's time to move on and also to get past the Clinton period" when Democrats salted the federal judiciary with more liberal appointments.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We shouldn't have to have recess appointments in order to get qualified jurists to the bench. Bush won a popular majority with 51% of the vote and 4 million more votes than Kerry in the election. It was and is a mandate. In the end the President will win this fight, and we can send them all packing when they come up for reelection. They have messed with the wrong people in this fight. Both social and fiscal conservatives are united in this fight, and the back stabbers will feel the political pain.
Who's betting that nearly every single one of them will be so extreme in Liberal's eyes that "exraordinary circumstances" won't be quite so extraordinary?
Priscilla Owen was confirmed on an up/down vote. Supposedly, the agreement was that Janice Brown and William Pryor will also get up/down votes, with action planned for next week.
As for all the rest, no one knows what will happen with any or all of them...yet.
The agreement left that hanging by using some weasel words that both Dems and Pubs could claim as a good deal for their side. Frist, Lindsey Graham and other Pub Senators claim the Constitutional option is still open if the Dems filibuster any of the next nominees, whereas Ted Kennedy, other Dem Senators and radicals in the outside pressure groups are going around bragging that the agreement "preserved the filibuster" and how great that is for them.
Wasn't that so very nice of them to allow a vote on two. END SARCASM! They have messed with the wrong people, and a can of whoop ass is about to be opened up on them politically.
If anyone believes the Dems will keep their promise I have a bridge to sell, and extraordinary bridge.
The wheels of the Senate move slowly. Bush will get most, though not all, of his district, appellate, and Supreme Court nominees confirmed through 2008. He will have secured a major sea-change in the federal judiciary by the end of his term, and it will be one of his lasting achievements.
The RATS are simply trying every maneuver to slow down the process and run out the clock.
I quoted them together because they both made the same statement about a constitutional option still being open. I was answering a question by a FReeper who wanted to know where the prospect of up/down votes on the nominees now stands. I addressed my post to him. Good grief. My post implied nothing at all about the two men being the same in any other way.
ping
Much as I thought. My question really concerns those "others". Last I heard Frist was saying that absolutely would be brought to a vote, and brought quickly, to test the dems on their word. So..., any word on those others? Thanks for your info.
Tuesday of next week they are expected to start the floor process on Janice Brown and William Pryor, and then move to the nomination of John Bolton for UN Ambassador(who was also filibustered before they recessed). That is what I read, anyway. I am assuming the rest of the nominees will be taken up after that. However, Frist could always decide to bring one of the "others" to the floor first, as a test case for the Dems and for the RINO Senators, but if he intends to do so I have not read about it.
They had the week off.
But Tony, this supposedly played into Bush's hand. Why the early on hand wringing?
I mentioned to a friend when the deal was first struck. I wondered how long it would take before people began saying that the opposition underestimated Bush again. I'm wondering if the talk show and written publication pundits haven't been just as guilty of underestimating?
I sometimes watch those poker shows on TV when nothing else is on and one of the things a professional poker player will tell you is its partly the luck of the draw, but mostly being able to read your opponant.I suspect GW would be a great poker player, because if this story is true he waited until the Dems showed thier hand and he's puting all into the pot now. And we will see what happens. I love it!
Probably. We all are guilty of those first visceral reactions to the moderates who undermine the party line. I'm still angry, and to be honest I couldn't see how they were going to dance around these holier than thou jerks. But I should keep my faith in the ones who will do everything they can to make these idiots pay for their actions. Bush is very good about pulling the carpet out from someone without making it appear as he is doing so.
They'll be back full time next week..........3 days per week, 6 hours per day.
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