The End Of The Filibuster? (PBU21)
The Democrats main problem in this fight is the same problem they have with most things. The American public by and large are ignorant of how their government has worked over the past 225 years. The Republicans take every issue and dumb-it-down to a sound bite, i.e., "No judge that has ever had majority support on the Senate floor has ever been denied an up or down vote." First of all there is no way to know that for sure. Second, most Americans, let's assume that statement is true, don't know why that's the case. Like most things in life it can't be reduced to a sound bite or a catchy one word phrase. To steal from the '04 campaign, it's nuanced.

Why has a court nominee that has majority support never been denied a vote on the floor? A little thing call ADVISE and consent. Now the consent part we all know about, they vote for the nominee giving their consent. But the advise part is the other half of this and these previous committee checks were a major part of the advise. The president used to actually go talk to the senators and see if not only could the nominee make it through the committee but also could he pass the vote on the floor, avoid a filibuster. If the answer to those questions were no the president didn't nominate that person. In the Clinton and H. W. Bush administrations the nominees were held up in committee and never allowed to proceed to the floor. Now with one party rule and the changes to committee rules the only check left on the Republicans is the filibuster. The Republicans say that they are only going to remove the filibuster for judges. Well, once it's removed for this how hard will it be for them to remove on legislation as well? Not very, and then you can kiss your Social Security goodbye!

Here are two more items to read on this subject:

Apparently, You Can't Filibuster Incompetence

NUCLEAR CHICKEN
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 7:06 AM