Idiot GOP Senate Set to Shaft Estrada?

rushlimbaugh ^ | 2/28/2003 | rushlimbaugh

[TLBSHOW]

I am more frosted at the Democrats for what they're doing to the Constitution vis-à-vis Miguel Estrada's than I am over the anti-war movement. Fox News reported that the GOP planned to call for a cloture vote on Estrada next week knowing they'd lose it. That would effectively amend the Constitution - illegally - to read that you need 60 votes instead of 51 to get a judicial nomination through.

Happily, it turns out the GOP isn't going to call such a vote. The offices of Senators Santorum and Hatch rang up my office on Friday, and said that the Fox story is not accurate. There will be no cloture vote. Hooray! If these Democrats want to filibuster the first Hispanic nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court, let them do it! I know they say there are new rules making a filibuster harder, but so what? And don't tell me that it's not "practical" anymore, because people have to go to the bathroom. That's nothing new.

Force them to get out there and filibuster this eminently qualified man, as rated unanimously by the American Bar Association. Miguel Estrada is just a name to us, but his life is being destroyed here. It's not because he's unqualified; it's because Democrats don't like how he might think. Read George Will's column. Chuck Schumer didn't bother to ask Estrada a single question. He claims not to know any less qualified judge, when in fact he knows less qualified judges who went to the Supreme Court! Just this week, President Bush pledged to stand by Estrada until he was sworn in. We know no other nominee has been asked to give nor should give opinions on issues that may come before the court. Their job is to apply the law, not to make law or let their opinions get in the way of rulings.

These senators have to back Bush and Estrada up. The Democrat attitude is, "We ran Washington for 40 years up until 1994, and Bush is illegitimate despite what the Constitution says about the Electoral College, so he has no right to appoint anyone." These people are treating the Constitution like toilet paper. Calling a cloture vote would overturn more than two centuries of Senate precedent and rewrite the constitutional definition of "advise and consent." We cannot allow that to happen. You have to care about this, folks!

These people aren't Democrats or liberals. They don't believe in the Constitution. They don't believe in individual rights, as affirmed in the 9th Amendment; in sharing power with the states, as described in the 10th Amendment; in free political speech protected in the 1st Amendment and shredded in campaign finance reform. They don't support the right to bear arms provided for in the 2nd Amendment. They don't respect private property rights protected by the 5th Amendment! If there's a blade of grass in the backyard, they call it "wetlands" and take it away! This assault must stop.

Listen to Rush...

(...react to the Fox News story, and reject the notion of a cloture vote by the GOP) (...demand Democrats be made to pay a price for shredding the Constitution)

Read More of Rush's Estrada Coverage… (Rush On A Roll: Anatomy of a Smear) (Rush On A Roll: Want Estrada? Declare Linda Daschle DOA) (The Limbaugh Library: Ken Starr Tips Us Off on Estrada) (EIB A-B: Estrada Qualifications Blow Away Breyer and Ginsburg)

Read the Questionable Fox News Article...

(FoxNews: Republicans Seek to End Debate on Estrada)

Read the George Will Column on Estrada...

(Washington Post: Coup Against the Constitution - George F. Will)

[TLBSHOW]

Not now they won't......

[Howlin]

Is Rush Lying?

Evidently that is what TLBSHOW is now saying, since he didn't refute my questions to him.

Good to know, eh?

[cyncooper]

I think it was a true story

Why are you ignoring my post from the NRO article? The very article that discussion began on yesterday?

It clearly states NO VOTE was scheduled. Frist clearly said--I heard him myself--that they were sticking with this no matter how long it takes.

It was not a true story as has been demonstrated time and again with more than one source.

[TLBSHOW]

The only one that can clear up what they said is Bill Frist and the Fox tape recording of the interview.

Has Bill Frist said he did not say what Fox says he said? I am looking........

I would think Fox if a good source as we all know would tell the truth that they put out a false story, instead I bet they did not and that is why in Fridays version it now says Exclusive inetrview with Bill Frist but you know all that?

[PhiKapMom]

So now we are to take the word of a journalist over Senator Frist, Senator Hatch, and Senator Santorum.

Give this person a break. The love affair for Fox News Channel and they are always right around here is going to leave some with egg all over their face.

The day you automatically assume any news organization always tells the truth, is the day you have stopped thinking!

Senator Frist has more integrity in his little finger than the Washington Press Corps as a whole! You can take someone's comments and leave out vital words or sentences and convey an entirely different meaning. Have you taken a course in Journalism because if you had you would know that when an article starts out wrong, the rest of the article is suspect. Quotes taken out of context are wrong. Sen Hatch's were taken out of context and if I heard right from someone who should know so were comments of Sen Frist!

Do you know Senate rules? To have a cloture vote, it has to be laid on the table 48 hours in advance. How could they vote on Tuesday when we know there was no such motion to invoke cloture on Thursday when they recessed for the weekend. That Tuesday vote mentioned in the article was never going to happen because it never was requested.

Did it ever occur to you since Garrett made up the first three paragraphs that were totally wrong, that maybe the rest of the story was less than correct?

[justshe]

Irrational stubornness.

[ez]

I read on another thread that Corzine is going to vote NO on Estrada but that he is against the filibuster. There is the crack to daylight...to hammer the consciences of the Dems for NOT ALLOWING A VOTE.

[cyncooper]

because it was Frist's own words.........

Give the quote that you think proves your point.

I saw Sen. Frist myself and he committed himself to Estrada as firmly as did President Bush.

[TLBSHOW]

Another bottom line


The D.C. Appeals Court is considered the second most important court in the nation. Three current Supreme Court justices once sat on it.

AP/JESSE J. HOLLAND

[deport]

Do you know Senate rules?

---

He's 'gifted' so need to know the rules..... right show?

[TLBSHOW]

another opinion/story that Rush also used Friday...

Unconstitutional filibuster

WASHINGTON--The president, preoccupied with regime change elsewhere, will occupy a substantially diminished presidency unless he defeats the current attempt to alter the constitutional regime here. If at least 41 Senate Democrats succeed in blocking a vote on the confirmation of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Constitution effectively will be amended.

If Senate rules, exploited by an anticonstitutional minority, are allowed to trump the Constitution's text and two centuries of practice, the Senate's power to consent to judicial nominations will have become a Senate right to require a 60-vote supermajority for confirmations. By thus nullifying the president's power to shape the judiciary, the Democratic Party will wield a presidential power without having won a presidential election.

George Will

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/georgewill/gw20030227.shtml

[PhiKapMom]

How many times do you have to be told there was no cloture vote scheduled for Tuesday morning? None -- zero, zip, nada.

Check the Senate records and you will find no such motion was ever given to the clerk. Without the clerk receiving such a motion, no vote can be scheduled on ending a filibuster that has not been declared a filibuster.

Now knock it off!

How about Garrett's lie about the Republicans doing an historic vote on Wednesday night -- it was a Qurorum Call which you seem to like to forget about not a cloture vote.

[deport]

Another bottom line

---

Can't answer the question can you? That's par for the course with you. You are incapable of answering something as simple as did Rush say the Fox article was wrong? DID HE OR DID HE NOT? Is that beyond your comprehension?

[PhiKapMom]

I am with you -- Senator Frist stated he has no intention of not sticking with Estrada all the way!

[cyncooper]

There is the crack to daylight...to hammer the consciences of the Dems for NOT ALLOWING A VOTE.

Exactly right. If any of the dems (I know it is most) want to vote no, fine! But let the vote be held. The Republicans ARE working a strategy that was in place long before Rush's show aired yesterday.

As I keep pointing out, the thread where the heated discussion began yesterday was started with an article from Byron York stating the latest step, with the opportunity for the dems to submit their stupid questions (OK, I added the "stupid" part). The article makes clear the Republicans were a determined lot and not about to cave. They would love to simply have the vote come to the floor already, so you make an excellent point if Corzine is saying he's against the filibuster!

Corzine would not be subject to the wiles of TLBSHOW would he. Or even Rush? Therefore it must be the successful maneuverings of Frist, Hatch, etc.

[TLBSHOW]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist needs to be bolder. Never in American history has a nominee to the Court of Appeals been filibustered. In light of this departure from Senate traditions, Frist must act. Instead of allowing the Democrats to conduct a filibuster from home, their district, vacation, or where ever they chose to go, Frist must make them conduct the filibuster Strom Thurmond-style.

Make the Democrats take to the floor. Day and night, a nonstop filibuster. Frist should make the filibuster the only item on the Senate agenda, allowing no other business to take place until Estrada gets an up or down vote on the Senate floor.

Combined with the pressure already being placed on Democrats by the President and Hispanic groups, the traditional filibuster will force the Democrats to action.

Democrats will run the risk of having to explain to the voters why they have allowed the Senate to shut down over a well qualified appeals court nominee filibuster.

As seen during the Gingrich Revolution, the public is not happy when their government shuts down for partisan purposes.

Frist and the rest of the senate Republicans need to act and act now. The time is right to force the Democrats to take action. Miguel Estrada deserves a floor vote and the Democrats need to learn the cost of obstructionism.
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_4555.shtml

[deport]

How about Garrett's lie about the Republicans doing an historic vote on Wednesday night -- it was a Qurorum Call which you seem to like to forget about not a cloture vote.

---

Maybe that was a historic vote in that Garrett has never seen one before?.....

Kinda like tlbshow can't tell us what Rush said about the Fox story....... He can read volumes but he can't read the one little paragraph where Rush says the Fox story was wrong. Huh, Show

[RobFromGa]

I doubt the GOP will cave now.

I for one would like to build on this positive baby step.

I agree, TLB, no way is the GOP gonna cave on Estrada, you and me are on the same page on this one.

The GOP is committed to this candidate and he is setting the stage for other confirmation fights. ESTRADA will be confirmed.

Now back to our regular programming...

[TLBSHOW]

Fox news wrote it and printed it so until they say its wrong its right.

A Frist interview must be on tape.........

[PhiKapMom]

Beginning to think there is a lot Garrett has never seen before in the Senate. Maybe he should take a Government class!

As for TLB -- his comments are getting stranger and stranger.

I heard Rush say the Fox article was wrong!