It's time Republicans learned to play hardball (Strom Thurmond filibustered for 24 hours)

townhall ^ | February 26, 2003 | Linda Chavez

[TLBSHOW]

It's time Republicans learned to play hardball

It's time Republicans learned to play hardball. Democrats don't really want to filibuster Miguel Estrada's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. They aren't anxious to stay up all night and give marathon speeches on the dangers Estrada purportedly poses to the Republic. Tom Daschle needs his beauty rest, after all.

But the Republicans haven't been willing to call the Dems' bluff. Normally, a filibuster requires a senator to take the floor and keep it, an arcane privilege that prevents the Senate from voting on the issue at hand, unless 60 senators vote to cut off debate.

Former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond (then a Democrat) filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes straight in an attempt to kill the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Former senator William Proxmire (D-WI) talked for 16 hours and 12 minutes on a debt-ceiling bill in 1981, and then-senator Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY) filibustered a tax bill for 15 hours and 14 minutes in 1992.

No one seems to have the stomach for a real filibuster today, Democrats or Republicans. Instead of holding the Democrats' feet to the fire to force them to keep talking, the GOP leadership allowed senators to go home for the Presidents' Day recess without voting on Estrada. Now, Republicans are letting the Democrats drag out the debate day after day, without forcing obstinate senators to stay on the floor round the clock and on weekends.

It's understandable that Democrats wouldn't want to talk about Miguel Estrada hour after hour. They have nothing to say. Estrada is obviously well qualified for the position, having received the highest judicial recommendation from the American Bar Association.

His stellar qualifications have earned Estrada a left-handed compliment from Democrat Sen. Harry Reid (NV), who said, "We don't know anything about Estrada, other than he's smart."

The Democrats' real complaint is that Estrada hasn't commented publicly on controversial issues such as abortion and affirmative action. But is it fair to oppose a nominee on those grounds alone?

Ironically, the Democrats and liberal interest groups launched a similar attack on a previous Republican judicial nominee, calling him a "stealth" candidate for his refusal to say how he might vote on abortion cases. When a Republican-controlled senate confirmed that nominee, National Abortion Rights Action League executive director Kate Michelman accused senators of "a dangerous leap of faith (which) placed in jeopardy American women's fundamental right to choose." The nominee -- Justice David Souter -- went on to become a stalwart pro-abortion vote on the Supreme Court.

Estrada isn't likely to become another Souter. Conservatives certainly don't believe he will. But the point is, his failure to inform the Senate about his private views on abortion shouldn't be held against Estrada, even by the pro-abortion ideologues that constitute the Democrats' senate ranks.

Nonetheless, by not exposing the Democrats for the obstructionists they are, Republicans have opened themselves up to the charge by Democrats that it is Republicans who are to blame for bringing Senate work to a standstill with the Estrada nomination. Worse, Republicans have confused the issue by insisting on talking during this phony Democrat filibuster in a misguided attempt to make sure the pro-Estrada side gets equal time in the debate. Anyone tuning in to the debate on C-SPAN wouldn't have any idea from watching this charade that the Democrats are the real holdup on Senate action.

I've seen it time and again in my 30 years in Washington. Republicans play by gentlemen's rules. Democrats play to win. Republican sportsmanlike conduct has cost them dearly over the years. Republican diffidence helped doom Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination, almost derailed Clarence Thomas' confirmation to the high court, and is likely to defeat Miguel Estrada's appellate court bid as well.

It is probably too late now to force the Democrats' hand. Republicans moreover may believe that if Democrats succeed in blocking Estrada's confirmation, Hispanic voters will punish Democrats at the polls. Don't bet on it. More likely, Hispanics will see that for all their good intentions, Republicans can't deliver when it counts.

[deport]

Dick(Cheney) and I were talking about all this and he suggested TLB might be the right man to run the Senate for a while ....do you agree?

---

Well he seems to know how but won't tell us how to force the democrats to talk 24/7. So since he seems to have the inside scoop, maybe as much as the Byrd man, then maybe the 'gifted one' would be an appropriate choice to run the Senate for a while. Just long enough to get us out of this mess and the country back on sound footing.

Morning to ya

[ACAC]

deport is correct. There is no way to force Dems to do anything. If 45 Dems want to stop a vote, they can do it.

[TLBSHOW]

24/7 hold em to the fire..........

[justshe]

The problem with that is that, while being a made for TV moment, it didn't show up much on TV. I watch a lot of news, and I still have not seen it.

---

Good point..as I watch Fox News exclusively. Hume covered it, which is all I can report.

This latest letter to all Senators as reported HERE will be harder for the newsies to ignore however.

[ACAC]

How do you force people to talk who don't want to?????

[justshe]

WHEW!!!!

I would hate to think I had interfered with your strategery. And yes, I see that even though I offered 'clues', he is still clue-less. :-)

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

[TLBSHOW]

The Sergeant-at-Arms job is to get those that do not show and enforce all rules..

[null and void]

Dude!

Every minute the Dems filibuster, they lose more minority votes.

The Party of Lincoln picks up most of these.

Frankly I hope they are still filibustering for the 2004 elections...

[Reagan Man]

>>>Every minute the Dems filibuster, they lose more minority votes.

In the last paragraph, conservative hispanic columnist, Linda Chavaz said the following:

>>>" Republicans moreover may believe that if Democrats succeed in blocking Estrada's confirmation, Hispanic voters will punish Democrats at the polls. Don't bet on it. More likely, Hispanics will see that for all their good intentions, Republicans can't deliver when it counts."

I happen to agree with Ms. Chavez.

[null and void]

As opposed to the Democrats who WON'T deliver when they can?

[Gritty]

If the Republicans lose this slam-dunk because they don't like staying up late or being called nasty names, well, they deserve to become the Minority party in the Senate - and most likely will!

Republican Senators need to forget their Sunday tee-times and Quiche brunches and start sticking up for something besides their inflated egos and exhalted opinions of their place in American history. If they don't, Americans will abandon them and they will become the most "fair-minded" has-beens in the trash bin of history.

Deservedly so!

[TLBSHOW]

If we lose this we won't get one darn thing done that The President wants or the people. Rush is now talking about the George Will story.

[deport]

The Sergeant-at-Arms job is to get those that do not show and enforce all rules..

---

Oh 'gifter' can you obfuscate....... What does that answer have to do with the question that was asked of you? So after a quorum is present and that's 51 in todays Senate "How do you make them talk"? That's what you keep saying that they should be made to talk 24/7... Now please in all your infinite wisdom, explain how that is done if they don't want to..... Can you answer that question or will you throw some obtuse answer out again because you are incapable of answering the question?

[Zack Nguyen]

Republicans have long considered that a bluff and Tuesday they called it, offering to compile a written list of additional questions from both parties to pose to the nominee.

That offer is completely worthless politically. The Republicans think that the Democrats will be silent in response, and the Republican's point will thus be proven to the public. They are right on the first but wrong on the second. The Democrat strategy has never been based on rational thought. Everyone knows it, and Democrat supporters don't care, because they are barely rational themselves. The average voter doesn't understand enough to care.

The Republicans need to start causing the Democrats pain, and make them suffer until they give in. Then and only then will Estrada get his vote.

[Robert_Paulson2]

who said anything about frist keeping them up all night?
I am talking about breaking legs... and ruining the careers of their close family members and friends... all by legal means of course. levers of power give you that ability.

ie: perhaps somebody could arrest mrs daschle for lobbying for money, from an arab american group... or deny a fellow family members access to a building permit they need, to keep a loan from being called...

I am talking about using the power of the political majority, to disabuse the democrat leadership of the idea that THEY are invincible and that this SH#T is going to be tolerated. They want dirty... we play CLEAN but find ways to HURT them financially, familially, and socially... within the confines of the law, and our ability to influence the structures of power, to cut off their GRAVY TRAINS via our influence... we ARE in power.

NOBODY has shown this forcefully to the dems.
They need a few lessons... the "force fillibuster" stuff is a waste of time.
Arms need to be twisted... and resistors need to be broken. EVERY BODY has dirt that can ruin their lives... and liberal dems have a lot more of it than your average american.

They need to be stomped on a few things... property lines have been moved, traffic tickets have been fixed. BRIBES to enemies of the the USA have been paid... BUST BALLS or don't play the game!

It's a republican stupidity disorder... You can fight dirty while staying within the law. And it needs to be done in a comprehensive, and strategic fashion. Republicans need to change the way they think and perceive their power... until they do... the best we are going to get is this: "YOU better let us vote or we are going to force you to talk to us" crap.

the pussyfooting around has got to stop. there is too much at stake to continue the 'nice guy' game.

[TLBSHOW]

bttt

[TLBSHOW]

BUMP

[TLBSHOW]

ping to truth

[TLBSHOW]

yes its a filibuster

To: RobFromGa

Hatch:

Bonnie Campbell had no experience, never tried a case, never got to the floor of the Senate, here ABA rating was below Estrada...

Hatch keeps referring to a filibuster in progress, calls it unconstitutional, are we technically in a filibuster??


253 posted on 03/03/2003 2:01 PM EST by RobFromGa (Free Miguel Estrada!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 249 | View


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/855823/posts?q=1&&page=253