Filibustin'

The Republican's are up in a ruckus about the Democrats using the filibuster to stop some of the President's judicial nominations. They are calling it unconstitutional and bitching about it, although the filibuster has been around for 200 years. They are threatening to invoke what they call the "Nuclear Option", essentially changing the rules to only require a majority vote to end debate, which would result in a backlash from Democrats paralyzing operations in Congress. (Read this essay by someone far more knowledgable than me).

In the last session of Congress, the Senate approved 204 judicial nominees selected by President Bush. Only 10 were rejected (I believe that another 10 were neither confirmed nor turned down and Bush is renominating all 20 who were not confirmed). According to Senator Patrick Leahy's website, that is more federal judges than were confirmed for President Reagan during his first term, more than in President George H.W. Bush’s presidency, and more than in either of President Clinton’s terms. Republicans defeated the nominations of more than 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominees and more than 200 of his Executive Branch nominees in Senate Committees (Republican's controlled Congress during much of Clinton's presidency, thus filibusters weren't needed). Not even George Washington got all of his nominees confirmed.

So what are they really bitching about? Well, the current filibuster issue is all about control and power. The Republican's are using the unique position of power that the current situation has granted them to set the wheels in motion to dramatically change many aspects of life and government that we take for granted. Recent polls have shown that 66% of the public opposes changing the rules on filibusters. Let's just hope that things don't change. I don't want to our rights and other inherent values taken from us.