Talking Nonsense - The Senate Filibuster

BreakPoint with Charles Colson ^ | March 13, 2003 | Mark Earley

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Talking Nonsense BreakPoint with Charles Colson March 13, 2003 The Senate Filibuster Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship president Mark Earley. There’s no place like the Capitol for high drama—especially this week. Our nation is on the brink of war. Before the Congress are urgent tax bills, needed legislation to help bolster the economy. In fact, the congressional calendar has never been fuller. So you may well wonder: What weighty issues engage our leaders this week? What great subjects are prompting the learned orations that will stir the blood of patriots yet unborn? Would you believe the joy of country music and life in West Virginia? Senators are engaged in a filibuster—one that is punching holes in the Constitution they are supposed to protect. For five weeks now, the Democrats have deliberately bogged down the Senate to prevent a vote on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia—the second most powerful court in the nation. The filibuster is unfair to Estrada, who is eminently qualified to serve; he would easily be confirmed if the full Senate was allowed to vote. But the filibuster is also an outrage because the senators are distorting the Constitution. When our founders divvied up power between the three branches of government, they gave to the president the authority to choose judges. They added to the Constitution the phrase "advice and consent"—the Senate’s role—only at the last minute. The founders feared a president might engage in nepotism. But they never intended for the Senate to have the inflated role some modern senators have claimed for themselves. What’s really going on in the Senate has nothing to do with Judge Estrada’s qualification and nothing to do with the rule of law. It’s entirely—entirely—about politics. By tying up the Senate in a filibuster, pro-abortion senators are serving notice that they will block any judge President Bush nominates to the Supreme Court who does not pass their litmus test on issues like abortion. It is true that Estrada has not disclosed his personal views of abortion and other issues on which he may be asked to rule as a judge. We don’t know where he stands. No judicial nominee states his personal views because judges are to interpret the Constitution, not inject their personal views. Senate Judicial Committee members like Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Patrick Leahy asked Estrada questions about his personal views that they knew he was not permitted to answer and then said they did not know enough about him—preposterous. What they really want is judges who have the same personal views as they do on abortion and other issues, and, contrary to the Constitution, they want those judges to rule based on those views. The five-week-old filibuster needs to be broken. If senators feel that they must vote against Judge Estrada, fine, but vote. It is unconstitutional and unprecedented that a Democratic minority in the Senate should highjack the confirmation process for political ends. You and I need to get on the phone and demand that our senators end the filibuster. Those of you in South Dakota, New York, Vermont, and Illinois especially need to call your senators. Call their offices in your state. Tell them to vote for the nominee, but more important, tell them to end the filibuster and vote. If we don’t, it is possible that a handful of senators will talk to death the very freedoms our Constitution was designed to protect. Take action: Urge your two senators to end the filibuster holding up the nomination process of Miguel Estrada and vote in favor of his confirmation. The Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121. For e-mail addresses, visit http://www.congress.org/. For further information: "President Calls for Action on Judicial Nominations," White House Office of the Press Secretary, March 11, 2003. Douglas W. Kmiec, "Supermajority Rules?: Why the Estrada filibuster is unconstitutional," Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2003. René Fonseca, "Estrada & the Dream," National Review Online, March 12, 2003. Byron York, "Estrada: Now It’s War," National Review Online, February 12, 2003. Major Garrett, "Filibuster Si, Estrada No!" Weekly Standard, March 17, 2003.

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Prison Fellowship Ministries © 2002

[the_Watchman]

Those of us in states which have Republican senators can also badger the media to make this a front page story about obstruction of business! The media is sitting on their hands on this.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Yes, we need to keep it up until the noise is loud enough that they can't ignore us.

The article above can be sent to multiple addresses at one time through the E-mail to a friend link.
Separate addresses with a space, instead of a comma.
Cut and paste the following into the "To" box:

senator@biden.senate.gov senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov senator@conrad.senate.gov
senator@dorgan.senate.gov dick@durbin.senate.gov bob_graham@graham.senate.gov
tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov tim@johnson.senate.gov senator@kennedy.senate.gov
john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
senator@levin.senate.gov senator_murray@murray.senate.gov senator@nickles.senate.gov
senator@pryor.senate.gov jack@reed.senate.gov senator@rockefeller.senate.gov
senator@sessions.senate.gov olympia@snowe.senate.gov senator@stabenow.senate.gov
senator@warner.senate.gov mailbox@gregg.senate.gov senator@collins.senate.gov
saxby_chambliss@chambliss.senate.gov jim_bunning@bunning.senate.gov kit_bond@bond.senate.gov.

Other contact tips:

Toll free Senate: 1-800-648-3516
Toll free for Sen. Graham in Fla.: 1-866-418-9569

Janet Parshall is providing this easy, free way to Fax our Senators Re. Miguel.

The Senators are paying attention to the big city newspapers. This Miami Herald editorial is excellent, and the "e-mail to" link at the bottem will allow you to send off the editorial to multiple Senators.

Just cut and paste the following list to the "To:" box. Use list for other "Outlook Express" Estrada editorials:

senator@biden.senate.gov,senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov,senator@conrad.senate.gov,
senator@dorgan.senate.gov,dick@durbin.senate.gov,bob_graham@graham.senate.gov,
tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov,tim@johnson.senate.gov,senator@kennedy.senate.gov,
john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov,senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov,senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov,
senator@levin.senate.gov,senator_murray@murray.senate.gov,senator@nickles.senate.gov,
senator@pryor.senate.gov,jack@reed.senate.gov,senator@rockefeller.senate.gov,
senator@sessions.senate.gov,olympia@snowe.senate.gov,senator@stabenow.senate.gov,
senator@warner.senate.gov,mailbox@gregg.senate.gov,senator@collins.senate.gov,
saxby_chambliss@chambliss.senate.gov,jim_bunning@bunning.senate.gov,kit_bond@bond.senate.

[alloysteel]

Meanwhile, the Senate is NOT passing legislation that often turns out to be more troublesome than no legislation at all. Eventually, the stall by the Senate Democrats will begin to snowball upon them, and irrelevance sinks into silliness.

[OldFriend]

This is not an official filibuster. The senate is conducting business. Yesterday they passed the ban on partial birth abortions. Other measures have been passed as well while this obstruction on Estrada continues.

[TLBSHOW]

bump

[Stand Watch Listen]

Related Articles: and past Democrat Senate obstructionism

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Source: CNSNews; Published: March 11, 2003; Author: Paul M. Weyrich

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Barbara Stanley: Hillary Barks Her Marching Orders To Democrats: Bork Miguel Estrada!
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Senate Democrats: Filibusters Are No Longer Just For The Floor
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Senator Leahy's Comments on Senate Floor against Estrada (26 Feb 2003) (Revised)
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[yoe]

This is NOT a filibuster - Colson is wrong. What we're watching is the Constitution being torn to shreds by the obstructing democrats. What we need is a REAL filibuster starting now!

[yoe]

When you e-mail your senators, copy in this paragraph, it says it all.

The bottom line is that in Estrada we have an extremely talented, highly qualified Hispanic -- an immigrant success story -- nominated to the second highest court of the land, and it's the Democrats who are smearing him and blocking a Senate vote.
PAUL CRESPO’S ARTICLE IN THIS MORNINGS MIAMI HERALD

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Could you post a link to the Miami Herald article? Miami Herald allows you to mass e-mail their articles - see #3, cut and paste the Senate list. Let them know we aren't giving up.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The Democrats know they will pay no price for their actions. Neither the media nor the Republicans will make them pay for their stance, so why shouldn't they be as obstreperous as possible?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

That's what the Democrats thought in Florida - in 2000 and in 2002... Florida AP and Gannett political coverage is far left. We (us regular people) bypassed them. We're doing it now.

Conservatives and family groups are working hard to spread the word re. Miguel as well. In the process, a small group of very determined Americans are informing fellow Americans about the groups who are protesting Miguel's nomination - learning that half the Congressional Black Caucus and a third of the Hispanic Caucus are members of the far left socialist Progressive Caucus, and that People for the American Way does not represent mainstream America.

Thirty years ago the Dems. may have gotten away with this with no political backlash. Today, we have the internet, FoxNews, talk radio and our eyes have been opened post-Clinton, post-911.

We will continue phoning our Senators, contacting our neighbors and newspapers...and we are learning just who's fighting for America, and who's pandering to those who put their skin color, sex, age, pet causes before their country.