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Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees

The Washington Post reports that President Bush is now jumping into the filibuster fray. He previously promised to stay out of it. We know he was fibbing because shortly after, VP Dick Cheney said he'd exercise his vote as the presiding officer of the Senate in favor of the nuclear option in case of a tie.

Monday's developments, according to the Post:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid extended an "olive branch" of sorts to Republicans by offering to hold a yes or no vote on Thomas Griffith, nominated by Bush for a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Reid said that although Democrats oppose him, they would agree to a vote on him, and he'd in all likelihood be confirmed. It has been widely reported that Griffith practiced law in Utah without a law license.

That wasn't good enough for Bill Frist and the Republicans. They still are insisting on up/down votes for all nominees.

Later on Monday, Bush demanded a vote on two specific judges, Priscilla Owen and Terrance Boyle.

The Washington Post explains why Bush's actions are wrong:

The president, who initiated the conflict by renominating judges whom Democrats had blocked during his first term and demanding new votes this year, is essentially guaranteeing a showdown that is as much about the power of the presidency as Democratic obstinacy, according to numerous government scholars. The result could be a more powerful White House, a weakened Congress and the possible erosion, if not end of, the most powerful tool available to the minority party, the filibuster, the scholars said.

"This is being done to . . . help a president achieve what he wants to achieve," said former representative Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.), now a scholar at the Aspen Institute. "It's a total disavowal of the basic framework of the system of government. It's much more efficient [for Bush], but our government was not designed to be efficient."

Don't be misled into thinking this is just about judges.

Although Republicans say the rule change would apply only to votes on judges, Richard Pious, a professor of political science at Barnard College, said there would be nothing to prevent this Congress or future ones from applying the precedent to non-judicial matters such as tax cuts or restructuring government programs. "Once you get the procedural method through, then if you have 50 votes and a vice president presiding, I think you can do it," he said.

Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind if they do this, sooner rather than later . . . we will head down the slippery slope, probably first for executive nominations and then legislation," he said. "It erodes the Senate as an institution, but also clearly makes Congress less significant."

The filibuster is an essential check against a complete usurption of control by the party in power. It is a Senate tradition that has been in place for the last 200 years. It is consitutional.

The Senate, unlike the House, which operates under written rules, is guided by tradition and precedent.

It's time to tell your Democratic Senators not to give in and to continue to fight for the independence of our judiciary by preserving the right to filibuster. In no event should any of these four judges be confirmed: Janice Rogers Brown, William G. Myers III, William H. Pryor Jr. and Priscilla R. Owen.

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    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#1)
    by BigTex on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    It's neigh well impossible to say if the fillibuster is Constitutional or not. Case law is exceedingly thin on the subject, in fact in 1998, the Supreme Court noted that there had been only 1 case challenging the fillibuster's Constitutionality to date. In the few cases on the subject of is a fillibuster Constitutional the Court has refused to adress the issue, holding that the petitioner didn't have standing. If the nuclear option is used, the dems might, have standing, but they would still have to get over the hurdle set by the Court saying it is improper for the Court to rewrite the rules of the Senate. This looks to be an area of aconstitutionality. -BigTex

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#2)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    It's time for the Dems to stop offering these "compromises" of letting in bad judges. It sends a signal that they are weak, and stand for nothing. They need to stand up and fight W to the end, otherwise, why did we bother voting at all?

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    "It's neigh well impossible to say if the fillibuster is Constitutional or not." Huh?? There's no sensible argument that the filibuster is unconstitutional. Just because there aren't many cases on the issue (it's not, by its nature, a judical question) doesn't mean the answer isn't apparent. The drafters of the constitution would have said something like "confirm or reject by majority vote within x days of the nomination" rather than "advise and consent" if that's what they meant. Filibusters have been a familiar debating technique in the Senate back to the time of the founding fathers.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#4)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    Lack of caselaw on this topic seems to be more indicative that pretty much everyone through our history has considered attacking the filibuster to be stupid and laughable. Tex- have any of your classes discussed the "laugh test" yet?

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#5)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    "That wasn't good enough for Bill Frist and the Republicans. They still are insisting on up/down votes for all nominees.." What a surprise. The President nominates someone and the Repubs want a vote.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    What a surprise. The President nominates someone and the Repubs want a vote.
    Well, it might come as a surprise to Helene White . . .

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    If the nuclear option is used, the dems might, have standing
    It seems moderately clear to me that the courts can't review a parliamentary decision by the presiding officer of the senate, sustained by a majority vote of that body, evn if that decision is premsied on a lunatic notion of constitutional law.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    The only way Dems will lose this (and they still have lots of time to throw away their apparent victory with idiotic "compromises") is if they lose their nerve in the face of Rep threats. Look, this is a big loser for the Reps in public opinion. Nothing shakes a Senator more than his ratings dropping in his district. What's the other option? Let the bad judges in or the Reps will ram them through. Why not let them ram them through? Same result, but the Reps take the rap for it instead of the Dems caving like wussies again...

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    Why not let them ram them through? It's an appointment for life or until they get elevated to the SC. I say no bad judges. The dems and moderate republicans like Hagel should stand strong. I think the moderate republican caucus meets in a phone booth downtown every other saturday at noon. Standing room only.

    Conscios Angel: Blaghdaddy meant the Dems have two choices: Oppose and get steam-rolled if Frist drops the bomb, or relent and let the judges in anyway... They might as well call Frist's bluff. He's saying, "Give me the candy or I'll take it." Blaghdaddy was always the one who said, "Come and f*#king take it, if you can..." Same advice for the Dems...if the Reps want these judges, they're going to get them...but they'll have to drop the bomb...otherwise what was all the fuss about? So when Blaghdaddy said, why not let them ram them through, he meant, make them do it, don't back down...and Blaghdaddy doesn't think they'll do it...time will tell...

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#11)
    by GhostDog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    PPJim - It's not like this information is either widely unknown or difficult to find. In case you could be laboring under genuine ignorance of the Republican approach to dealing with judicial nomininations, though, here's a little kibble on the subject. Rather than openly challenge President Clinton's nominees on the floor, Republicans decided to deny them Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Between 1996 and 2000, 20 of Bill Clinton's appeals-court nominees were denied hearings, including Elena Kagan, now dean of the Harvard Law School, and many other women and minorities. In 1999, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch refused to hold hearings for almost six months on any of 16 circuit-court and 31 district-court nominations Clinton had sent up. Three appeals-court nominees who did manage to obtain a hearing in Clinton's second term were denied a committee vote, including Allen R. Snyder, a distinguished Washington lawyer, Clinton White House aide, and former Rehnquist law clerk, who drew lavish praise at his hearing -- but never got a committee vote. Some 45 district-court nominees were also denied hearings, and two more were afforded hearings but not a committee vote. Even votes that did occur were often delayed for months and even years. In late 1999, New Hampshire Republican Bob Smith blocked a vote on 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Richard Paez for months by putting an anonymous hold on the nomination. When Majority Leader Trent Lott could no longer preserve the hold, Smith and 13 other Republicans tried to mount a filibuster against the vote, but cloture was voted and Paez easily confirmed. It had been over four years since his nomination. When his tactics on the Paez and Marsha Berzon nominations (Berzon was filibustered along with Paez, more than two years after her nomination) were challenged, Smith responded with an impassioned floor speech in defense of the judicial filibuster: "Don't pontificate on the floor of the Senate and tell me that somehow I am violating the Constitution of the United States of America by blocking a judge or filibustering a judge that I don't think deserves to be on the circuit court ... . That is my responsibility. That is my advice and consent role, and I intend to exercise it." Incidentally, Paez was the first Mexican-American to sit on a Los Angeles US District Court. A bit of history. So -- did you not know about these Republican episodia? Or did you know and have some other idea in mind than what you actually wrote? -- Dog, etc.

    LoL

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:55 PM EST
    Ghost, Please do not confuse PPJ with facts. His heads will explode from too much truth gas.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#14)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:56 PM EST
    Ghost - Why are you arguing a point I have never contested? Yes the Repubs did it. So. What is your point. Do you really expect mercy from your enemy? Please. Politics is mean and nasty and the Repubs want what they want. Fight'em in committee. Fight'em in debates. But don't tell me that the Senate can't change the rules, and don't tell me the filibuster is in the Constitution.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#15)
    by BigTex on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:56 PM EST
    Y'all are applying the wrong test to the filibuster. It's not a question of is the filibuster Constitutional or not, the question is doing away with thte filibuster Constitutional or not. If doing away with the filibuster is Constitutional then it doesn't matter if the filibuster is Constitutional or not because it's okay to do away with the filibuster, and cogent arguments can be made to support quashing the filibuster iun advise and consent areas. Given that the Court has never directly addressed the issue, but has in dicta suggested that it would not address the issue even if someone had standing to raise the issue it's hard to see the filibuster having Constitutional protection; otherwise the Court's dicta would suggest that had standing been met the filibuster would have protection. I wasn't trying to say that the filibuster was Unconstitutional, only that it doesn't have Constitutional protection. -BigTex

    Big Tex is right...but what's the point anyways? The Rep's used the anonymous and cowardly "blue slip" in Committee to ensure over 60 judges never made it to a debate. Did that impede the Constitutional right of Clinton to have his judges installed? Of course it did. More than ten f#*king judges? Yeah, six times more...so what are the Republicans saying about up-and-down votes? Oh, that they want them now that the nominees are theirs!!! Specter himself once said that he would refuse to vote on unacceptable nominees...now, he's so full of sh#*t (even for him) that his eyes are turning brown. Business as usual in the Senate, a whole lot of sound and little fury...

    PPJ: The people elected Clinton and gave him the right to appoint judges too, didn't they? So what do you call Republicans holding up 62 judges and not even allowing them out of committee? You keep avoiding the point that the Republicans did far worse in the 90's and the country still ran...so why the big crisis now? Over ten measly judges out of 210? Where's your outrage over the 62? Where is it? Same place as your intelligence- MIA?

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#20)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:58 PM EST
    Blagh - Why do you keep asking about the 62? I have never said it was right. But the Repubs have never filibustered a judical nominee when the Demos held the majority and ran the committees. My deal is simple. Debate and vote. And I actually save my outrage for more important things. Where's your sense of balance? MIA? DA - Yes, a couple of RINOs are involved. But a couple of Demos could fix that. et al - The fact that Clinton had people hung up in committee can be looked at several ways. First, he lost his Senate majority, so that was an actual vote of no confidence, so his "right" was lost. Secondly, times have changed. The mood of the country re judges and their actions have changed, so Congress sould have enough common sense to be sure and have a debate over the issues. It is important to the well being of the country. And if you want to go back, we can always look at Bork, and what happened to him, and to Thomas and how he was treated. Those two were the start. Our current situation, and the battles along the way, is merely a logical extension.

    The Dems have never tried to impeach a president "as payback," either...what's your point? Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it's wrong...or was Emancipation wrong too? And women's suffrage? And Social Security? Get over the "never been done before.." If the filibuster exists in Senate rules, then the Dems were the first to dust it off...and for the Reps to complain about 10 after 62 is stupid, PPJ, that's the connection... Stupid....and very, very, boring...or did you think the American people would swallow conservative crap forever? Tell Blaghdaddy, PPJ, where's the public outcry over filibusters? Are people in the streets? Are they crying out for constitutional mercy? You people are so pathetic... Blaghdaddy's done with this thread, he's getting dizzy going around and around and around....have fun, guys.

    Re: Bush Calls for Vote on Two Judicial Nominees (none / 0) (#22)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:58 PM EST
    Blagh - Every heard of Andrew Johnson? "Get over the "never been done before.." So when the Repubs shut down the filbuster, you won't complain? I understand you can't keep things straight.