LIVE THREAD: Estrada Filibuster DAY 2

http://www.freerepublic.com ^ | February 13, 2003

[aristeides]

Maybe the polling showed that the initial tactic wasn't working?

[VRWC_minion]

Something else just hit me. Virtually all rats mention "last night". It seems that they recognize they were raked over the coals last night.

It would be great if the GOP could repeat this process a few more times.

[Mo1]

Nope. No polls. Amazing how quiet the pollsters have been.

No Polls??? ... or no polls they want to release?

[JackTom]

Senate just gone into legislative session to discuss Conference report on the Omnibus appropriations bill.

[chnsmok]

Leave it to our idiot WA state senators to be the bread for a Byrd sandwich.

[PhiKapMom]

Very well stated and I agree 100%!

We need to add to the number of Senators on our side and do everything we can to do just that!

I want to gain maximum political damage out of this one towards the DemocRATs!

[CHICAGOFARMER]

SWING VOTES...... CAll them... I did.


One last note: if you'd like to call the twenty Senators yourself, here's
their contact info:

Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) 202-224-4623
Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) 202-224-3643
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) 202-224-2353
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) 202-224-4843
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 202-224-3553
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) 202-224-2441
Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) 202-224-3041
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) 202-224-5274
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) 202-224-3934
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) 202-224-5623
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) 202-224-5824
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) 202-224-2651
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) 202-224-6551
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) 202-224-5521
Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) 202-224-3154
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) 202-224-2043
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) 202-224-2551
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) 202-224-6121
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) 202-224-5842
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) 202-224-3954

[Mo1]

Thanks .. and I wish I was .. LOL

DC CHAPTER ROCKS!!

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the update! I wondered about the other comment! That didn't sound like Hatch!

[hoosiermama]

Can't get Bayh office to answer. Just rings and rings. ANyone else.
202-224-5623

[Darlin']

Oh, thank you so much for your wise and thoughtful contributions to the thread. </sarcasm>

[PhiKapMom]

You are right -- "last night" was mentioned a lot. A few more nights like that and we just might get the cloture votes.

[Mo1]

Not sure if this true .. but I heard she even had port a potties brought in .. LOL

[txradioguy]

Very good point. If the polls were in favor of what the RATS are doing, we'd hear about them every 5 minutes.

[Mo1]

I'm on it .. Thanks for the update

[FreeTheHostages]

shh, not so loud. They're out Freeping the French embassy right now. I'm stuck at work.

Announcement to DC Chapter members who see me posting: no, I'm not *just* posting here, I really am still working. Couldn't make it.

[ken5050]

Do you think that Frist gave them the week off because he wants the Dems to go home and get pressured from some pro-Estrada groups?....ya know, the way the Senate works....three Dems are in favor.....publicly..Frist may have a few more who have said, "I'm with you,,but only IF you get to 60.....otherwise, why should they put their necks on the line if they're gonna lose..so maybe the GOP has 7 Dems in the fold..on;y need a few more..that's how it's done.....your thoughts?

[VRWC_minion]

While the rats have spent their energy and political capital on Estrada, the presidents (11? ) spending bill comes to ther floor of the senate rats have no real time to review and no real time to have kept track of this bill.

Me thinks Bush and Frist may have been playing a slight of hand game here at the same time.

[aristeides]

Interesting e-mail on How Appealing blog:

*********************************

I am appalled and disgusted by the Democratic treatment of Miguel Estrada -- I hope and expect that they will come to regret this.

But setting aside for a moment my partisan lens, it seems to me a very instructive event -- why have Democrats chosen to pick this fight at this time? In truth, I think they have no choice but to fight, for two reasons: race and abortion. On race, the Democrats simply cannot abide yet another intelligent, successful, sympathetic and yes, conservative jurist (see Clarence Thomas). The very existence of such judges fundamentally undermines so many liberal Democratic orthodoxies that they cannot allow such figures to emerge from the process unscathed. In this respect, it is helpful to consider the disparity between the statements and rhetoric of the liberal Hispanic groups opposed to Estrada (he's not "genuinely Hispanic," does not reflect the experience of most Hispanic immigrants, etc.) and the arguments being used by the Democratic Senators against him. They dare not impugn Estrada's "Hispanic-ness," of course, but there can be no doubt that politically, the Democratic Party's racial apparatus is driving the Senators to the unprecedented lengths they have already gone.

But perhaps even more than race, I believe that abortion is -- as always -- motivating the Democrats to fight so bitterly over this judicial nomination. There is no greater, stronger orthodoxy within the Democratic coalition than unequivocal support for abortion on demand. And the Democrats know full well that their only hope of preserving abortion on demand is to keep the issue tied up in the courts and away from the democratic process. The mere suspicion that Mr. Estrada objects to the jurisprudential underpinnings of the "right to abortion" is enough to make Democratic Party activists demand that their Senators fight this fight. If Bush has his way -- on this nomination and on presumed future Supreme Court appointments -- they know full well that the whole edifice begun with Roe could well crumble. And to be thus exposed to the democratic processes that would then govern is, apparently, a prospect too horrible to allow.

Mr. Estrada obviously drives right at both of these two issues, either one of which alone might have caused this fight. The fact that he's one of the first nominees out of the chute under GOP control of the Senate is also a complicating factor, of course.

That, in any case, is my take -- thanks for your continued coverage, and here's one strong vote in favor of Judge Estrada.

[Mo1]

YAHOOO ... I just Love The DC Chapter

ANd not to worry, I won't tell .. hehe