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May 25, 2005
Frist Likely to Jeopardize Recent Compromise Already
According to Congress Daily PM via Think Progress, it appears the new bipartisan agreement on judicial nominees may already be endangered. In fact, it may not make it to next week. Congress Daily PM reports it has heard from various sources on and off Capitol Hill that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is likely to move ahead with his plan to file for cloture on another of Bush's judicial nominees: William Myers.
The bipartisan group of 14 senators agreed to allow cloture votes on judicial nominees Janice Rodgers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and William Pryor, but made no commitment on whether to vote for or against two other judicial nominees: William Myers (9th Circuit) and Henry Saad (6th Circuit). According to an article in the Washington Post, negotiators of the compromise said that these two judicial nominees would either be filibustered or withdrawn.
Read the complete Senate agreement on judicial nominees.
If Frist files for cloture on Myers, which could come later this week, the strength of the agreement will be tested. It appears that Frist is simply looking for an easy opportunity to return to the nuclear option despite the Senate agreement.
While expressing significant reservation on the agreement, Frist said he would abide by it. However, he made it very clear that he was not among the "coalition of the willing."
I have had the opportunity to review the agreement signed by the Senator from Virginia, the Senator from Arizona, the Senator from Nebraska, and eleven other Senators — an agreement that I've reviewed but to which I am not a party.
The following is a selection from his speech before the Senate on the compromise:
Three nominees will get up or down votes with certainty now because of this agreement. Whereas a couple of hours ago, maybe none would get up or down votes. And that would have been wrong. And, with the confirmation of Tom Griffith to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which we've been assured of, though it's not part of this particular agreement, there will be four who will receive up or down votes. And based on past comments, on this floor, although not in the agreement, I expect that David McKeague, after three years and six months, will get a fair up or down vote. I expect that Susan Neilson, after three years and six months, will get a fair, up or down, vote. I expect that Richard Griffin, after two years and 11 months, will get a fair, up or down, vote.Now, the bad news. It is a shame that well-qualified nominees identified by those twelve members are threatened still with not having the opportunity to have the merits of their nominations debated on the floor.
Henry Saad waited for three years for the same courtesy. He deserves a vote.
William Myers has waited for two years and one week for a fair, up or down vote. He deserves a vote.
If Owen, Pryor, and Brown can receive the courtesy and respect of a fair up or down vote, so can Myers and Saad.
So I will continue to work with everything in my power to see that these judicial nominees also receive that fair, up or down vote that they deserve. But it is not in this agreement.
[...]
So given this disarmament on the filibuster and the assurance of fair up or down votes on nominees, there is no need at present for the constitutional option.
But with this agreement, all options remain on the table – including the constitutional option. If it had been necessary to deploy the constitutional option, it would have been successful, and the Senate would have by rule returned to the precedent of the past 214 years. Instead, tonight, members have agreed that this precedent of up or down votes should be a norm of behavior as the result of mutual trust and goodwill in that agreement.
I of course will monitor this agreement carefully as we move ahead to fill the pending 46 vacancies on the Federal bench today, and other vacancies that may yet arise during this Congress.
I have made it clear from the outset that I haven't wanted to use the constitutional option, I do not want to use the constitutional option, but bad faith and return to bad behavior during my tenure as Majority Leader will bring the Senate back to the point where all 100 members will be asked to decide whether judicial nominees deserve a fair up or down vote.
And I will not hesitate to call all members to their duty if necessary.
[...]
Mr. President, a lot has been about the uniqueness of this body and indeed our Senate is unique, and we all as individuals and collectively as a body have a role to play in ensuring its cherished nature remains intact.
And indeed, as demonstrated by tonight's agreement and by the ultimate implementation of that agreement, we have done just that. It has withstood mighty tests that have torn other governments apart.
It's good to know Frist will be "monitoring" the agreement carefully to make sure there are no shenanigans over Bush's judicial appointments. That just gives me a whole lot of confidence.
He certainly lost no time in challenging the Senate's compromise on judicial nominees. The potential fallout from Frist's move could be devastating to the traditional functioning of the Senate, and it's obvious a potential 2008 presidential run is more important to him than the interests of Americans.
Here's what Howard Dean had to say about the compromise on CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff courtesy of the DNC's blog, Kicking Ass.
Posted by at May 25, 2005 12:06 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Marc, did you honestly think Frist would waste any time challenging the compromise? Get real. I agree with the Congressional Black Caucus, and I wish Howard Dean would. The Congressional Black Caucus feels that the filibuster compromise was a mistake, and I believe it was. I would've preferred it if the Democratic senators had shut the Senate down and refused to do business with the Repukes at all.
YOU DON'T COMPROMISE WITH THE ENEMY EVER!!!
When are the majority of the people on this blog going to wake up and realize that?! Does anyone on this blog really believe that rules, and laws and compromises mean a whit to these fascist thugs?! We are dealing with an extreme faction of fascists in government who don't want to compromise. They don't want to follow the rule of law. They shit on our U.S. Constitution. They shit on the American people and the global community. One doesn't compromise with criminals, murderers, treasonous bastards and fascists. Wake the hell up, people!
What is it going to take to get through to most of you? Are liberals and progressives going to have to be interred in concentration camps in this country? Are liberals and progressives going to have to be arrested en masse and tortured and killed? Are liberals and progressives going to have to watch their children get drafted and forcibly sent to other countries to kill and be killed? Are liberals and progressives going to be forced out of their homes and into the streets to starve? Are liberals and progressives going to be tattoed and forced to wear some sort of identification on their sleeves?
What IS it going to take to get some of you out of Wonderland and into America as it is today? This tactic by Frist is NO SURPRISE to me and Stan, Ron and Muriel. We see what this so called compromise will lead to. The Rethugs will STILL end up controlling the judicial branch of government! I'm sick and tired of these mealy mouthed moderate Democrats trying to play nicey-nice with these criminal Rethugs. Rethugs are only interested in power and money! It's as simple as that. The Republican Party has long ago ceased to be the party of fiscal conservatives. They have long ago ceased to be the party of social conservatives. They are the party of spend money like there's no tomorrow and impose your personal beliefs on everybody in America whether they like it or not! There is NO rationalizing with these nutbars.
I think Howard Dean is being completely naive if he thinks we have to "wait and see" who Bushie boy is going to nominate for Supreme Court justice. Good God, Howard! What more evidence do you need that Bush couldn't find his own ass if it wasn't attached much less nominate a sane person to the Supreme Court??!! Howard Dean should be standing with the Congressional Black Caucus in condemning this so called compromise between the 7 "moderate" Democrats and 7 "moderate" Republicans. I'm beginning to hate the word "moderate". It means SELL OUT to me. It means FENCE STRADDLER to me. It means LET'S TAKE THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE to me. It means MEALY MOUTHED to me.
Make a stand, people!! You are either a LIBERAL or PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT or you are a REPUBLICAN! It's really cut and dried here. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR MODERATION IN THESE TIMES!!!!!
WE ARE LOSING OUR DEMOCRACY SO GROW A PAIR OF HUUUUUUUUUUGE BALLS AND MAKE A STAND!!! GET MAD AND BE WILLING TO FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY AND TAKE IT BACK FROM THESE POWER HUNGRY, BLOOD THIRSTY REPUBLICAN FASCISTS!
And guess what, people? It might just cost you everything you have including your life, but if we don't have democracy in America then life is not worth living anyway. So, stop being pussies and trying to go the way of moderates and centrists. The time for moderation and mediation is over, folks. It's time to take it to the streets because this aint over by a longshot with these fascists.
Republicans plan to rule the world, and they won't give up power without a fight. Remember that.
Posted by: Kris Graham at May 25, 2005 09:07 AM
David Van Os, our candidate for Tex Attorney General, had this to say:
I rise not to criticize William Rivers Pitt but merely to disagree, for he is truly an honorable warrior for the people. He rarely calls it wrong, but this time he happens to be wrong. The filibuster has not been saved. The purpose of this deal was to give yellowbellied Senate Democrats a way to get out of having to take a stand. If the filibuster can't be used to stop Priscilla Owen, a truly dangerous individual, from being installed on a federal appeals court for life, then it has not been saved. Bush comes out smelling like a rose - the bottom line news for the average person is that Bush won a big victory by overcoming 4 years of Democratic opposition to Owen's confirmation. The Supreme Court is gone. A nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Chief Justiceship would not be an "extraordinary circumstance" under the standard that has been set. In the event Reid were to attempt a filibuster against a Bush Supreme Court nominee, all the Repubs have to do is tell their seven pets the nominee is not an extraordinary circumstance, and they'll cave in, because the Rs will then say, "we can use the nuclear option because this one isn't extraordinary," and whether it's a bluff or not, they know the Sellout Seven will surrender because it's been proven they don't have the guts to take a stand. And if the Sellout Seven miraculously were to stand firm, so what - the R's will vote to abolish the filibuster then.
All those jellyfish have done at the very most is postpone the inevitable while making it a much harder fight to win then, since now they have deflated the public outrage they had going for them by saying through their actions that Bush's nominees are really OK and the whole 4 years of fuss was a fuss over nothing. They obviously are addicted to losing. So what else will the Lieberman Gang of Losers do now? Give their Republican Masters a Social Security compromise agreeing to "just a little" privatization so as to "save bipartisanship?" That's coming too.
My stomach is so sick over this. Everything we have fought so hard for over the last 5 years trying to hold the dike against the growing madness - and seven gutless wonders send it all down the drain in one swift sellout.
The Democratic Senators, as a body, cannot be counted on. We have a truly great Democratic Party, but these Senators are irrelevant bystanders, not part of our great Party of milliions of people who deserve better than to be continually sold out. I know not what others may do, but I refuse any more to accept leadership from the amoral and the gutless.David Van Os
Posted by: Randy Scott at May 26, 2005 10:15 AM
Hey, why did this blog screw up my post that way?
Posted by: Randy Scott at May 26, 2005 10:16 AM
David Van Os, our candidate for Tex Attorney General, had this to say after reading WRPitt's article:
"I rise not to criticize William Rivers Pitt but merely to disagree, for he is truly an honorable warrior for the people. He rarely calls it wrong, but this time he happens to be wrong.
The filibuster has not been saved. The purpose of this deal was to give yellowbellied Senate Democrats a way to get out of having to take a stand. If the filibuster can't be used to stop
Priscilla Owen, a truly dangerous individual, from being installed on a federal appeals court for life, then it has not been saved. Bush comes out smelling like a rose - the bottom line news for the average person is that Bush won a big victory by overcoming 4 years of Democratic opposition to Owen's confirmation. The Supreme Court is gone. A nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Chief Justiceship would not be an "extraordinary circumstance" under the standard that has been set. In the event Reid were to attempt a filibuster against a Bush Supreme Court nominee, all the Repubs have to do
is tell their seven pets the nominee is not an extraordinary circumstance, and they'll cave in, because the Rs will then say, "we can use the nuclear option because this one isn't extraordinary," and whether it's a bluff or
not, they know the Sellout Seven will surrender because it's been proven they don't have the guts to take a stand.
And if the Sellout Seven miraculously were to stand firm, so what - the R's will vote to abolish the filibuster then. All those jellyfish have done at the very most is postpone the inevitable while making it a much harder fight to win then, since now they have deflated the public outrage they had going for them by saying through their actions that Bush's nominees are really OK and the whole 4 years of fuss was a fuss over nothing. They obviously are addicted to losing.
So what else will the Lieberman Gang of Losers do now? Give their
Republican Masters a Social Security compromise agreeing to "just a little" privatization so as to "save bipartisanship?" That's coming too. My stomach is so sick over this. Everything we have fought so hard for over the last 5 years trying to hold the dike against the growing madness - and seven gutless wonders send it all down the drain in one swift sellout.
The Democratic Senators, as a body, cannot be counted on. We have a truly great Democratic Party, but these Senators are irrelevant bystanders, not part of our great Party of milliions of people who deserve better than to be continually sold out. I know not what others may do, but I refuse any more to accept leadership from the amoral and the gutless.
David Van Os"
Posted by: Randy Scott at May 26, 2005 10:20 AM
I agree 100% with David on his opinion about the filibuster compromise. It is so refreshing to finally see someone who is running for political office who isn't afraid to speak the truth! David is dead on about our gutless gang of 7 Democrats who compromised on this issue. They merely sold the American people down the river and turned the clock back on civil rights, labor rights, environmental protections, women's rights etc.
I wish that some on this blog would stop making excuses for so called moderate Democrats and their idiotic political maneuverings. Take off your rose colored glasses, people, and see what is going on in America today! Why are people in this country and Democrats in the government so afraid to call a fascist exactly what he/she is?!
I wonder sometimes how I got to be involved in a party of wimps and losers. How I long for a Democratic Party that will stand strong for the average citizen and that will never grovel at the feet of Republicans and corporations.
I can only hope that our Democratic Party will find its voice AND its backbone before it's too late. My cynicism grows daily, however, with regard to that EVER happening.
Posted by: Kris Graham at May 26, 2005 10:47 AM