Posted on 01/27/2006 7:28:38 AM PST by RWR8189
WASHINGTON - Senate GOP leaders plan to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito early next week after dealing with a filibuster threat from Democratic die-hards who worry that the conservative judge would swing the court too far to the right.
A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice was scheduled for Tuesday morning, only hours before President Bush begins his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, if Alito’s bipartisan supporters succeed in rounding up 60 votes to cut off debate on Monday.
<SNIP>
A Democratic senator who plans to vote against Alito’s confirmation, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, said Friday that prospects for a successful filibuster were dim and he doesn’t support the idea.
“A filibuster, I think, is not likely to occur,” Biden told CBS’ “The Early Show.” “But who knows, one man can generate a filibuster.”
Sens. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota made it clear Thursday night after a second day of floor debate on Alito that they would not support a filibuster, even though Akaka was going to vote against the nominee and Dorgan was still undecided.
“Next Tuesday, a bipartisan majority will vote to confirm Judge Alito as Justice Alito,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.
<SNIP>
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada offered little support.
“There’s been adequate time for people to debate,” Reid said. “No one can complain on this matter that there hasn’t been sufficient time to talk about Judge Alito, pro or con.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
They won't filibuster over this one. They know that Alito will change the face of the court only moderately more conservative and beluieve that they still have enough votes to keep abortion legal. However, Stevens is 85 or 86 years old and Ginsberg isn't in the greatest health. Look for a showdown if one of those two dies or retires.
So let's have the confirmation vote!
Why the long face, John?
But it takes 41 -- which the 'rats don't have -- to sustain it.
Hence, why I would love to see a filibuster attempt on Alito. Nuke 'em and then have a Supreme Court that represents true America.
Why don't the Republicans use their majority status and just put an end to this thing NOW?? It is so frustrating. Just vote for crying out loud. Sounds like the Dems will not get the 41 votes they need to sustain a filibuster so why not just get this thing done. Geez.
In order to use the constitutional option cloture has to fail.
The failure of cloture is what puts the wheels in motion.
Well, Kerry probably can't count the money his wife has and Kennedy can't count the number of drinks he's consumed,
Now we need BOTH Ginsburg and Stevens to peacefully assume 'room temperature' - for the good of the republic.
In Kennedy's case, I'd say it would have been more important to have learned to drive.
biden on cnn said he would support a filibuster if they had the votes to stop alito.
He said if they can get the 41 votes to block alito biden will join the kerry/kennedy brigade.
They want, more than anything, to deny Bush the oppurtunity to recognize Alito in the SOTU speech. Since the vote is not scheduled until Tuesday I look for them to use some type of one-man filibuster or some other parlimentary trick to delay the vote. If Kerry is willing to do it (and he would be since it would be a huge win for the dims for which he would get the credit) Reid and the rest of the leadership could claim that they had nothing to do with it.
> A final vote ... scheduled .. only hours before ...
> State of the Union address ...
The dems would filibuster just to prevent Bush from
having Justice Alito as part of the address ...
... and it would be a perfect metaphor for the actual
state of the union - Democrat obstructionists doing
everything they can to sabotage the country.
Once cloture is invoked on Monday, I see no reason why Frist couldn't hold the vote at any time.
FNC alert now says Reid now supports it.
There is a little thing called Senate rules. They allow for unlimited debate. It works like this. The Senate allows any senator to speak on any issue for as long as he or she wants. And a vote cannot be taken until all senatos have spoken all they want to speak. To end unlimited debate 60 senators must vote for a procedure called Cloture. A vote for Cloture means close the debate. 60 of the 100 senators must vote for Cloture for debate to end. There are 55 Republican senators so 5 Democrats have join them in a vote for Cloture or the debate continues. The majority leader can call for a cloture vote at any time.
If Frist calls for a Cloture vote before five Democrats are willing to vote for it, it will fail and debate will continue. So Frist will only call for cloture vote when 5 democrats agree to vote for Cloture.
If 60 senators do vote for Cloture then it just takes 51 votes to confirm Alito.
The so called Nuclear option was an idea Trent Lott proposed three years ago. It takes 51 votes or 50 votes and the VP's vote to change senate rules. The Nuclear option is to change senate rules so unlimited debate is not allowed on Supreme Court Confirmations. The nuclear option outlaws filibuster.. Filibuster is a name for ulimited debate until those for the nomination give up trying to get a positive cloture vote.
If the Republicans change the senate rules (nuclear option) then Frist could call for a vote anytime he wanted and the Democrats could not stop it.
Up until a few days ago it was widely believed that there were not 50 Republicans who would vote to change the rules... so the Democrats filibustered other nominees. But now that Frist has 50 votes for rule changes the Democrats are not going to filibuster.. becuase it would not prevent Alito from being confirmed.
It apears the problems in the Senate for the past 2 years had not been the Democrats blocking nominations, it has been Republicans unable to act as a team. Now apparently they are acting as a team and they are going to win. Alito will be confirmed.
The Senate Rules - nicely summed - thanks.
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