Nuclear Waste

Senator Frist is getting closer to pulling off the nuclear option in the Senate. If you want more info on the nuclear option, read my previous post, Filibustin'. Despite the fact that Senate rules state that 67 votes are needed to change Senate rules, Frist is pushing for a vote to change the rules on filibusters. The Republicans want to change Senate Rule XXII, which requires 60 votes to invoke cloture (end debate) on legislation or nominations. The new rules would require a majority vote to end a filibuster. This would then make judicial nominees only require a straight up and down vote for confirmation.

Here is how they will do it. If the filibuster is evoked on one of the nominees, the Chair of the Senate (most likely Vice President Cheney) will make a ruling that filibusters on judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Presumably, one of the Senate Democrats would object to this ruling, and the full Senate would hold a simple majority vote (only 51 votes needed) to uphold the ruling of the chair. Thus ending filibusters. A sneaky way of breaking the rules by breaking a rule. Still, the filibuster is not unconstitutional, and has been part of our government for 217 years. Specifically, Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the Senate to determine its own rules of procedure, which includes the filibuster. In fact, when Jefferson and the other founders set up this country, they made certain to put longer terms and rules of unlimited debate in the Senate.

Bush has had 95% of his judicial nominees approved, and the noiminees that will likely get filibustered are activist judges who are far removed from the mainstream. They have often ruled against workers' rights and civil rights. (Just to give a couple examples of the rulings of these judges, one ruled that women are subservient to men and another ruled that zoning was the equivalent of theft. I don't know about you, but if I own a house in a nice neighborhood, I don't want someone opening up a porn shop or 7-11 next door). These nominees have often ignored the law and put their own personal views in their rulings.

And here is an example of Frist's own hypocrisy. Cloture votes were necessary to obtain floor votes on Clinton judicial nominees Richard A. Paez and Marsha L. Berzon in 2000, and Republicans attempted to filibuster the nomination of U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1994. Senator Frist voted against cloture for the Paez nomination.