Finally!
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."
Testing tag line......>
Or if McCain figures out a way to sabotage Frist.
"Perhaps the show of cojones by Arlen Specter this week is contagious. We can only hope... "
For all you Arlen Specter haters out there, have you noticed that both with the Roberts hearings and now with the Alito hearings, Specter has run a very tight and timely ship, has been fair and has stood up to the bullies on the Committee (in particular Teddy Kennedy), and plans on voting for Alito. Plus his hair has grown back. Specter is one tough bird. He is a RINO, but he comes from a pretty liberal leaning state. Occasionally he is a pain in the derriere; however, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as far as I can see he has so far done a very good job, contrary to the beliefs of those Freepers who want to slam him at any given chance. I recognize his deficiencies, but I also recognize his strengths and for these Alito hearings, I compliment him.
Of course, if they delay the vote, Bush can still mention Alito in the SOTU -- and talk about the damage that these kinds of delay tactics and filibustering causes.
The Dems might not like having their childishness highlighted.
both the House and Senate schedule abnormally long workdays, often lasting fifteen hours, with sessions lasting until midnight being very common.
Hebrews, I agree with you. I do not agree w/El Gato's hardnose but unrealistic viewpoint. Your assessment is right, his isn't.
Good and I hope he sticks to this and doesn't fold like a cheap suit.
I am certainly no Specter fan, but he has certainly done right by his party in these hearings. It helped that the Dems chose to tick him off rather than suck up to him, of course.
I also think that when things get hotly partisan, party loyalties often tend to get stronger, since there is safety in numbers when the bullets start flying.
I thought at the time that it was a mistake to let Specter chair this committee, and I still think that it was good that the "dump Specter" movement got his attention and put a little fear into him. We probably wouldn't be seeing what we saw from him this week if he had been able to strut into the chairmanship like Queen Latifa.
But no-one can doubt that as it turned out, there was no-one better to chair these hearings than Specter. He is one tough SOB, and he has no little street-cred with the Dems.
Finally, Bush chose nominees who were conservative, but whose demeanor doesn't raise liberal hackles -- the Dems had to work at disliking them, and Specter had a good excuse to openly advocate for them.
This is how the list will look shortly:
If I were to rank them subjectively from most conservative to most liberal:
Scalia & Thomas
Roberts & Alito
Kennedy
Breyer
Souter
Stevens & Ginsburg
Plus, Roberts, as new Chief Justice, will have an active hand on how the discussions of cases go, and what priority will be given to what case on the docket. Also, I'll bet, now that yet another Catholic is coming on board, that Kennedy might be more inclined to be influenced by the arguments of his fellow Catholics Thomas, Alito, and Roberts.
Ginzburg is in poor health, and Stevens is now the most ancient on the Court. Bush might have one more shot at an appointment before he leaves the Presidency. If so, and he appoints another strict constructionist, this will become Bush's greatest legacy for which he should be proud, as there will be lasting affects to come from this legacy and with a conservative court we can knock the U.S. back into shape.
"I'll bet it's not 'many'. These senators build their lives around the D.C. social life, and that doesn't happen between Tuesday and Thursday."
They really can't do this very often, or they would lose their jobs come election time. They've all got political business to take care of back in their home states and if they don't show up enough, they'll have no D.C. social life at all, as they will no longer be voted back into office by their constituents.
We need 60 votes to break a filibuster. Last year Frist told us over and over that he would use the nuclear option but never did. That is because he did not even have 50 votes to invoke the nuclear option. It is great that Snow Graham and some other RINOs say they won't filibuster but there are 45 rats who will and it is unlikely the rats in McCain's gang of 14 will worry about not abiding by their agreement. I don't think Alito is going to be confirmed and a lot of talk from Frist and Specter means less than nothing. The fact that the WP and NYT say Alito will almost certainly be confirmed, makes me even more doubtful it will happen. They are almost always wrong.
2002 and 2004 showed the rats that obstruction is a terrible election strategy. Many rats know that they will lose seats next Nov because of the fallout when Alito is forced to withdraw his name. However, they are between a rock and a hard place. The rats can’t let Alito be confirmed as it would cost them millions of rat votes. So they will filibuster, collect big money from their donor base, energize the Republican base, and lose twice as many moderate votes in Nov.
They will put off the Patriot act until May when it is on the verge of expiration. Then, they will extend another 6 months.
Fools for Senators is what we got.
In any case, it would be so patently childish for DemocRATS to delay the committee vote on Alito. I won't bet against it. But, will giggle at their stupidity and juvenile idiocy.
I missed this one. Is there a transcript of news story on Leaky's antics?
"We haven't heard from McVain and his gang of 14 yet."
Probably because McCain, Graham, DeWine, Warner and others will vote for confirmation; and will support the neclear option if necessary.
The dems are not likely to filibuster, imo.
Agree 100%.
I am anti-Specter. But, praise his performance during these hearings.
The Dems might not like having their childishness highlighted.
Too bloody bad.
When it comes right down to it, even the RINO's remember that there is a huge (perhaps even a HUGH) advantage to being in the majority party's caucus.
I think they will stick together on this one. There is safety in numbers for the RINOs -- where they could get in trouble with their consituents is if some RINOs break rank and others don't.
Again, we may have Specter to thank for RINO discipline here.
What I worry about is the GOP getting complacent because of these headlines. I think they need to assume a filibuster, and have a plan for acting quickly to break it and make political hay out of it. This announcement by Frist indicates that they are preparing for a worst case scenario. I hope.
And "talk is cheap b/c supply almost always exceeds demand."
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