The Byrd Option

Having just returned from a highly successful walleye fishing trip to Lake Mille Lacs, I return to the Blog. Walleyes of 27”, 24”, 23”, and 21” were my big catches, but the numbers of big fish were even well exceeded by another guy on the outing. Great way to spend a long weekend.

I’ve been generally away from the news, but couldn’t help hearing a bit as we turned on a show this AM that had Joe Lieberman on it. In ’95, Joe argued that the filibuster not be allowed to block judicial nominees, and proposed a sliding vote scale that would allow the cloture vote to eventually get down to 51, so the Senate could give the nominee an up or down vote. They had him on tape arguing that it was wrong to filibuster nominees, and when asked what he had to say. He got away with “the situation has changed”. The biggest change of course is that the guy doing the nominating at that point would have been a Democrat, Bill Clinton. Lieberman is about as good as the Democrats come, it is sad to see him reduced to being just another partisan hack.

There has only been one case where a judical nominee was filibustered before, and that was Abe Fortas in ’68, a truly odd case of LBJ trying to deny Nixon appointment of the new Chief Justice, and appointing a shady guy that both sides agreed was not qualified. He was filibustered by the bi-partisan group of Democrats and Republicans, and resigned rather than face the music of financial his financial dealings. Hardly a precedent for what we have now.

It has been argued that the Constitution says something about the 60 vote super-majority and appointments, but it does not. Treaties, impeachment, and amendments to the Constitution are the only things that require 60 votes. The only thing that drives filibuster is “tradition”, but of course the “tradition” of “advice and consent” was that an elected President had the right to an up or down vote on his nominees … until Abe Fortas (discussed above), and of course now.

Only in the liberal press land of American can we see ex-KKK Klegal, Robert Byrd, who talked for 14 hours to prevent civil rights legislation, and has used and threatened to use Senate rules in the past to limit debate, now talk about such limits being “like Hitler”. The comedic skills of the Democrats never cease to amaze. Byrd himself has used, and threatened to use, the very same mechanism that the Republicans now hope to use to limit debate. It is very odd to listen to the media on this subject. One senses that with the Democrats in the minority, they have a very strong desire for “minority rule”, something which was ALWAYS considered 100% “obstructionism” in ’92 – ’94 when the Republicans were in the minority.

While Dick Morris is often a flake, this is one time I fine myself in perfect agreement with him. In his article at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1393564/posts , he argues that the Republicans need to quit being a bunch of pansies and get an honest to goodness 24x7 filibuster going over some of these circuit court nominees. It is a great opportunity to see what the left wingnut Senate minority thinks are important issues vs the economy, the war, Social Security, roads, etc. I personally would relish seeing the ex-hooded knight of the South, Byrd, reading a phonebook to block a Black Woman CA Supreme Court Justice, elected with over 70% of the vote. It is the kind of picture that can only happen in America.

At least there should be some fireworks to watch this week!