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)

[PhiKapMom]

I believe they will go 24/7 only when Senator Frist determines it is the right time and only way to get the nomination through.

Personally I would like to see it to show the American people that the RATs will do anything to defeat this nomination of a qualified Hispanic!

[cyncooper]

Great post and as PhiKapMom said I actually agree with going 24/7 if things don't change.

Certainly you don't think the idea of going 24/7 is springing forth from today's happenings.

The Republicans have said for days if and when it becomes necessary they will do it. The time has not come yet.

You are acting like it was just now proposed.

[TLBSHOW]

I really think the fox story was a trail balloon and when Rush ran with it first thing and spent most of the first 2 hours with it that the call was made to Rush with a word of no. And of course with all the help of those who called the offices of republicans to tell on Rush. LOL

Rush spent most of the week slamming the antiwar movement but when he saw the republicans were going to cave he was upset with the republicans and said so on his show over and over. Rush even said what was the point of getting rid of Lott.

[cyncooper]

I believe they will go 24/7 only when Senator Frist determines it is the right time and only way to get the nomination through.

I agree.

One by one the dems' excuses for blocking this vote are being taken away, like being given the opportunity to ask their "questions" they claim they want answered.

[nicmarlo]

Well, I didn't even know there was any discussion on this today at all, much less the outcome....so, this thread being posted was, at best, misleading to people such as me who didn't know that FOX had even reported wrong information, then retracted it.....I thought this was "the" position.....which caused me alarm.....only by Howlin and cyncooper posting and linking to the 2:00 p.m. discussion did I learn this was wrong info.

[cyncooper]

but when he saw the republicans were going to cave

Just remember: The Republicans were NOT going to cave. You can say they were until you are blue in the face, but that does not make it so.

The Fox story was not the only article out there on this subject, putting the lie to the trial balloon business. Fox would not retract a story simply because the Republicans said "we didn't mean it". They said it was WRONG.

[PhiKapMom]

I am going to repeat this one more time -- THE FOX STORY WAS NOT A TRIAL BALLOON!!!!!

The Fox piece by Garrett was a hit piece by Fox. The headline of this story was a hitpiece by Rush. The headline does not match the story which means Rush changed the story and didn't change the headline.

Now Fox has only changed some of Garrett's story on their website. It still is wrong!

Why can you not admit that Garrett wrote a hit piece on the Republican Senate that was wrong and Rush ran with a wrong story from Fox?

[justshe]

"...but when he saw the republicans were going to cave he was upset with the republicans and said so on his show over and over.

Rush was wrong. The Republicans were never going to cave.

YOU are wrong. The Republicans were never going to cave.

It is not a trail balloon. It is a trial balloon.

In order for it to be a trial balloon, it would have required the Republicans to deliberately give false information to Fox News.
I seriously doubt that happened.

The only other explanation is that the story issued by Fox was wrong.

To recap: Rush was wrong. You are wrong. Fox was wrong.

[marajade]

I wonder if Brit Hume regrets hiring him now... Maybe we should email Brit and tell him we want Garrett sent back to CNN...

[justshe]

Self-validation is a STRONG motivator.

Self-delusion is the gas that fuels self-validation.

[TLBSHOW]

The fox story last night was from an exclusive interview with Bill Frist if I read it right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853356/posts?page=

[PhiKapMom]

I wonder that too! I found it interesting that Tony Snow was involved in clearing up the story too.

I know I would like to see him sent back along with some of the MSNBC people they picked up!

[justshe]

I'm going to give Garrett the benefit of the doubt and assume he made a serious error. Everything I have read about him is that he is a strong convervative who was miserable at CNN.

It is also possible that whoever edited this story put their own 'twist' on it, I suppose.

[marajade]

Then they need to clean it up...

[marajade]

Give it up! Its over!

[TLBSHOW]

Because Rush has this story linked at his site,well the new story linked, the one from tonight from Fox News.

Here In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist

Republicans Try to Break Filibuster on Estrada


Friday, February 28, 2003

WASHINGTON — Debate continues on the fate of President Bush's judicial nominee Miguel Estrada after Senate Republicans and the White House wrestled Thursday with a fateful choice — whether to call for a vote to break the Democratic filibuster or string out debate with no-near term hope of victory.





Calling for a vote is fraught with peril, but GOP Senate leaders say they plan to do it, they just aren't sure when.

The vote will be legislative history. The decision to call for a "cloture" vote on an appellate court nominee would overturn more than two centuries of Senate precedent and rewrite the constitutional definition of "advise and consent."

Republicans would need 60 votes to break the filibuster and they know they don't have them. The move toward a defeat on the floor next week could doom Estrada, one of Bush's lawyers in the Supreme Court case that determined his presidency.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he sees no other options but to press for a vote to break the Democrats' filibuster. A decision is expected Monday and a vote could come as early as mid-week next week.

"The ball is in the Democrats' court and they've chosen to play in a way that to get a filibuster to be broken, our only procedural move can be a cloture vote," Frist said. "Our goal is to have him confirmed and we will continue to use every procedural tool we possibly can. We certainly won't be voting on cloture tomorrow we may early part of next week."

But Frist emphasized that a vote to break the filibuster would not mark the end of the Estrada struggle.

"I would think the battle is just beginning. At that juncture, we would know who we need to talk to. I've got a feeling, I've got a sense that Democrats are entrenched, and our goal is to pull them out of those trenches. It may take a few days. It may take a few weeks — it may take months — but it's my goal to pull them out of those trenches," Frist said.

So far, Republicans are only guaranteed 55 votes to confirm Estrada, who would be the first Hispanic on the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia. If there were no filibuster, that would be enough to get him confirmed.

http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,79845,00.html

[ACAC]

Let's make this simple. I am going to haunt you until you answer my question. Say the Republicans keep the Senate in session 24/7. At midnight, the Dems decide to go home and go to bed. How do you stop them? And even if you could do it, how is that going to change their minds.

[justshe]

Just noticed this on the link to that story: Fox News' Major Garrett contributed to this report. I'm betting somebody's head was on the block....but it looks like Major Garrett was not the sole writer here, no?

[Nucluside]

No. 1: Rush is right 98.5% of the time. If he was wrong this time, and he admitted that he was, the stats still aren't bad. Who you going to trust more to be right, besides God?
No. 2: If we accept the above as being true, which it is, then hasn't a lot of time been wasted with comments above?
Think, if all that energy were spent in prodding our gutless wonders in the US Senate to stand up for the Estrada nomination.....!!!!!!!!

[PhiKapMom]

Frist told Fox News that he had no choice but to call the Democrats' bluff on the filibuster. A vote is scheduled for next Tuesday. (from story)

The last sentence was wrong. They never planned to vote on Tuesday -- never, ever!

Since you brought up the article, here are the first paragraphs with my comments:

WASHINGTON — History was made in the U.S. Senate Thursday, but it wasn't the kind that Republicans or the Bush administration wanted to confront. (That is an outright lie! History was not made in the Senate Wednesday night!)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist decided to call a procedural vote to break a Democratic filibuster against U.S. Court of Appeals nominee Miguel Estrada. The filibuster against a judicial candidate was historical in itself. (The procedural vote was a quorum call only to bring Senators to the floor and was not a vote to end a filibuster -- if Garrett had bothered to watch the proceedings he would have known that)

The decision to call for a "cloture" vote on an appellate court nominee overturned more than two centuries of Senate precedent and rewrote the constitutional definition of "advise and consent." Never before has a nominee been caught this deep in the web of Senate politics. (The bolded part is a lie! There was no "cloture" vote" on Wednesday night! To put that in the beginning of the article was a lie! Don't know what else to call it except if you want to be kind, you can call it bad reporting!)

Now that is just the first paragraphs of the article and anyone reading can see that was not a TRIAL BALLOON. Maybe Senator Frist better think twice about talking to Major Garrett in the future!