Posted on 01/13/2006 6:48:32 PM PST by frankjr
01/13 09:37 PM]
All of what follows is from a press release from Senate majority leader Frist’s office:
“With the continued uncertainty over whether the minority will keep to a timeframe of voting, up or down, on Judge Alito on Friday, January 20, Senator Frist today made the following announcements to his Senate Republican colleagues on an afternoon conference call:
· Whenever the Judiciary Committee reports out the Alito nomination, the full Senate will begin work on the nominee the next business day.
· If Democrats delay final action past January 20th, he will cancel the recess for the week of January 23rd which he had previously scheduled with the knowledge of Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
· Until the Senate votes, up or down, on the Alito nomination, he will not act on any other legislative item.
Frist made the following statement regarding his decision:
"Nothing right now is more key than the Senate voting, up or down, on the nomination of Judge Alito. I will keep the Senate at work and focused on the Alito nomination until we are done. Judge Alito, his family and the American people deserve a prompt and fair up or down vote on the Senate floor. When it comes to any delay in Judge Alito’s nomination, a Justice delayed will not be a Justice denied."
The House cut the extension back from 6 months to 6 weeks. The sunsetting provisions sunset in February.
Now, I'm one of those "heathens" who thinks expiration of the sunsetting provisions is not a big deal - I think the difference between the powers of investigation, etc. with and without renewal are quite small. I base my opinion in part on a report from the Congressional Research Service that lists the specific statutory provisions, and particularly describes the effects of sunsetting. The report is RL30465 - FISA Overview - Updated April 21, 2005.
But at any rate, back on the topic of timing, the Senate doesn't have as much time as you think to get to this matter and settle differences of opinion on the Patriot Act to the satisfaction of the public.
I don't think the senator has to wait for happy hour. Judging by his appearance during the Alito hearings, he is either suffering DTs or showing signs of some disease.
CSPAN was the only channel covering it. They had the entire hearings and never cut away.
They are prone to rebroadcast several times and should over the weekend. If may also be on the net. I'll look around a bit and see if I see it and let you know.
http://www.cspan.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100
Above site has entire 5th day on video (real player is what I use) and you can let it load (doesn't take that long), scroll through to near the end, after the witnesses, and you should be able to pick it up.
Hope this works.
Scroll to about the 4 hr 03 min. mark, start listening and watching and you'll get the entire exchange. I just did. Great exchange.
"They may object to Teddy's
Tantrums keeping everyone after school."
Good analogy.
Good tag material!
Thank you very much. Your tip on the 4:03:xx worked wonders in catching the key piece.
"Again, we may have Specter to thank for RINO discipline here."
The typical reader at FR will quickly criticize Specter, with the degree of name-calling that would make President Reagan roll in his grave.
Yet soon, the awful so-called rino Specter will have presided over seating two nominees that are very acceptable to conservatives.
So what is wrong with that?
"Seems like they risk allowing Bush to mention the Alito nomination being stalled just for the sake of stalling it, if they don't move. Wouldn't that be more damaging?"
Either way, they lose. I don't think they have enough votes for a filibuster. Plus the fact that most of the dims in the senate already voted for Alito for his job in NJ. It would make them look stupid to have fully voted for him before but now to say no. They have to factor that in.
I think they are now regrouping to see if they can pressure the YES voters in their party to change their minds.
We have.
That coalition fell apart pretty fast.
Most of the repubs are opposed to the filibuster and are agains any delays including McCain, Snowe, Dewine.
If you've seen Graham on TV, he has been downright daring Schumer to filibuster, and acting like he wants to be the guy who nukes it himself (not a bad way to promote ones self).
Nelson is already pretty much on board too.
I don't know parliamentary procedure or the specific rules of the senate, but I'm pretty sure you need quorum to vote.
Are you sure about that?
I'm positive I saw Reinquist attend each one, and I know I Saw Thomas and O'Connor, I do remeber seeing Ginsburg at least once, looking angry, and Scalia always goes.
2002, I'm positive the entire line of SCOTUS justices were there.
I'm getting the impression now, that some of the dems, don't even think Roberts is that conservative.
The phrase that keeps popping up, is that he is conservative but more moderate then Scalia and Thomas and they don't think he is a strict constructionist.
The feeling is that Alito is part of the Thomas/Scalia wing, while Roberts isn't and is more of a consensus type of guy who follows staria decisis.
There is a story that a senator once had (I think, but am not positive, it may have been Moynihan of New York), where, in all seriousness, some of the senators that go down to DC, eventually, start following the local teams and become redskin fans and start rooting for (back in the day before they became the wizards) the bullets.
It was eery, but I think its true, these guys become fans of the DC teams because of the disconnect from their home states.
Richard Nixon, for what its worth, did wind up becoming a solid redskins fan during his time in DC.
Most of the time, when politicians do come back home, its mostly to raise money, and that doubles as face time.
Only a handfull of senators actually criss cross their states in their own time, Schumer and Feingold are 2 notable ones who do this.
Graham musta read one of my emails. :)
Wellll, I been fooled before. Deeds, not words.
"Just when is the Senate going to deal with debate and negotiation on the PATRIOT Act? What's with the week off?"
Yeh...how much do these Senate clowns get paid? Didn't they just come back from the Christmas/holiday recess? The senate is filled with worthless egotistical arrogant blowhards anyway. Our taxes pay their bloated salaries and benefits too. The senate sucks bad.
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