Heads Up!!''Live Thread...Dingy Harry Reid..on the Senate floor, on Judicial nominations..C-span2..

[ken5050]

Just announced...Reid is to speak on Judicial nominations..

[mystery-ak]

Speak up Harry...I can barely hear him..

[Miss Marple]

I just turned this on. Harry Reid looks like he's been pulled through a knothole!

[kcvl]

Liberal Group Trots Out 'Lumbering Elephants' and Al Gore
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
April 26, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- A liberal advocacy group is planning a week of rallies and protests - and a speech by former Vice President Al Gore - all blasting Republicans who want to eliminate Democrat filibusters of judicial nominees.

As part of the effort to stop "radical Republicans" from taking "absolute control of the entire government," MoveOn.org's political action committee has unveiled a new TV ad featuring "lumbering" elephants eating federal court buildings.

The ad says those "radical Republicans" are "planning to break the rules, eliminating checks and balances, to get more extremist judges approved."

The Senate is expected to vote this week on a rule change that would allow President Bush's most conservative judicial nominees to get an up-or-down vote in the full Senate. Right now, that can't happen, because -- for the first time in history -- Democrats are filibustering seven of the people President Bush has named to the federal bench.

It takes 60 votes to cut off a filibuster, and Republicans don't have enough votes to do that. But the Constitution requires only 51 votes to confirm a judge. Republicans say Democrats therefore are requiring a more stringent test for federal judges than the Constitution allows.

Senate Democrats have threatened to stop doing business if Republicans go ahead with the rule change (the "nuclear option," as Democrats call it; the "constitutional option," as some Republicans call it.)

"Our government was founded on principles of checks and balances to ensure that no one party holds absolute power," said Ben Brandzel, MoveOn PAC advocacy director.

In addition to running the new ad, MoveOn PAC said at least sixty "rallies to stop the judicial takeover" will take place in over forty states. Volunteers will symbolically cordon off court houses and declare them the property of Republican leaders, to dramatize the impact of the "attempted Republican judicial takeover."

On Wednesday, Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to give a "major address" on the subject of judicial filibusters at a rally in Washington, D.C.

"You would think it would be enough for Republican leaders that their party controls both houses of Congress, the White House, and has appointed most of the sitting Supreme Court Justices and appellate judges -- but no, they want complete control of the federal government," said MoveOn PAC's Brandzel.

"To get it, they're willing to toss out a 200-year-old rule that has balanced the rights of political majorities and minorities and served the American people well since the early days of the Republic," he added.

MoveOn PAC hopes that a grassroots lobbying effort aimed at U.S. senators will thwart Republican efforts to "pack the federal courts with right-wing judges."

Republicans note that the U.S. Constitution allows the Senate to change its rules. They say they simply want President Bush's judicial nominees to get an up-or-down vote in the full Senate, as the Constitution requires.

Some conservative Republicans accuse Democrats of taking marching orders from liberal interest groups, which depend on activist judges to advance their agenda.

President Bush and other conservatives support judges who would "strictly interpret" the Constitution, rather than read into it things that are not there.

[LisaFab]

Reid is really trying to butter up Mitch McConnell now. Is trying to argue separation of powers.

[ken5050]

Mitch is, ( dare I say it?) "bitch" slapping the Dems..we weill never get to the poitn where 41 Senators can dictate to POTUS who gets on the bench, and ( listen for ..THE SUPREME COURT..Mitch just told them what this is all about..

[RobFromGa]

Are they going to vote? when?

[Mo1]

Reid is back up talking

Mentioning how he's enjoyed working with McConnell all these years

[hipaatwo]

Reid: George Bush is my president.


DO you hear the DUmmy heads exploding?

[kingattax]

"when Bush's election was settled by the supreme court"--- BULLSH*T

[Soul Seeker]

Thank you!

[ken5050]

We missed YOU..LOL...You missed Harry, Leaky, and Chuckie whining..McConnell just laid down the law..

[LisaFab]

Oh Jane. You missed Chuckie and Leaky kowtowing. Precious! Don't miss the rest of this. They are painted into a corner and they know it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Mitch was excellent!!!

[ken5050]

Don't forget..set your TIVO..tomorrow... GORE speaks to the MoveOn mob about this..

[Mo1]

Reid brings up the USSC elected Bush as President

Says Bush is President .. not King

Reid is playing for the base

[Soul Seeker]

I know, but I was having difficulty accessing it. I thought perhaps a direct link would work and it did. :-)

[ken5050]

that "damn Herbert Hoover".... was that an unintentional pun? LOL

[deport]

• Senator Leahy (past Judiciary Chairman and current Ranking Member): "If we want to vote against somebody, vote against them. I respect that. State your reasons. I respect that. But don't hold up a qualified judicial nominee. . . . I have stated over and over again on this floor that I would . . . object and fight against any filibuster on a judge, whether it is somebody I opposed or supported; that I felt the Senate should do its duty." (Congressional Record, June 18, 1998.)

• Senator Leahy: "I have said on the floor, although we are different parties, I have agreed with Gov. George Bush, who has said that in the Senate a nominee ought to get a [floor] vote, up or down, within 60 days." (Congressional Record, October 11, 2000.)

• Senator Daschle (Minority Leader): "As Chief Justice Rehnquist has recognized: 'The Senate is surely under no obligation to confirm any particular nominee, but after the necessary time for inquiry it should vote him up or vote him down.' An up-or-down vote, that is all we ask for [Clinton judicial nominees] Berzon and Paez." (Congressional Record, October 5, 1999.)

• Senator Biden (past Judiciary Chairman): "But I also respectfully suggest that everyone who is nominated ought to have a shot, to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor. . . . It is totally appropriate for Republicans to reject every single nominee if they want to. That is within their right. But it is not, I will respectfully request, Madam President, appropriate not to have hearings on them, not to bring them to the floor and not to allow a vote . . . ." (Congressional Record, March 19, 1997.)

• Senator Kennedy (past Judiciary Chairman): "The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court said: 'The Senate is surely under no obligation to confirm any particular nominee, but after the necessary time for inquiry it should vote him up or vote him down.' Which is exactly what I would like." (Congressional Record, March 7, 2000.)

• Senator Kennedy: "We owe it to Americans across the country to give these nominees a vote. If our Republican colleagues don't like them, vote against them. But give them a vote." (Congressional Record, February 3, 1998.)

• Senator Feinstein (Judiciary Committee member): "A nominee is entitled to a vote. Vote them up; vote them down." (Congressional Record, September 16, 1999.)

Click

[Soul Seeker]

OMG...!! I demand Reid pay my medical bills! I just hit the floor at that statement!

[ElPatriota]

Thank you, I am watching it on the web...