Tag: Judicial Nominees

Eve of Destruction.

As Frist’s press secretary gets tang-tungled trying in vain to explain her boss’s support for a 2000 judicial filibuster, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), one of Catkiller‘s stooges (who also blamed courthouse violence on activist judges a few weeks ago), sets the nuclear gambit in motion with a call for cloture. This will come to a head Tuesday, unless the moderates can avert the cataclysm. “Throughout the past three days of debate, Democratic senators pointed repeatedly to the Senate’s approval of 208 of Bush’s judicial nominees. Instead of being satisfied with a 95 percent success rate, the highest for a president’s judicial nominees in the past two decades, Bush has shown that he wants to have everything his way, the Democrats charged. By comparison, Republicans blocked 69 of President Clinton’s judicial nominees during his two terms.”

Nuclear Chess.

As Frist’s nuclear countdown ticks off, Senate moderates attempt a compromise, Senate aides hone their maneuvering, and Senate freakshow Rick Santorum (R-PA) invokes Godwin’s Law in claiming that Dems were “the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, ‘I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me?’” (C-SPAN link via Quiddity.)

Catkiller’s Big Day.

Undeterred by the Dem’s last-minute attempt to let less-controversial judges pass through first, Bill Frist initiates the nuclear countdown in the Senate. “‘I don’t rise for party,’ said Senator Frist. ‘I rise for principle.’” That is to say, the principle of seeing all the right-wing fundies line up behind his 2008 presidential bid.

Defcon 2.

Nuclear negotiations break down between Reid and Frist, setting the stage for a cataclysmic Senate meltdown this week over Karl Rove’s pet judge, Priscilla Owen. (That is, unless the Ben Nelson-John McCain compromise — which seems a considerable capitulation by the Dems — gains currency with the GOP.) Can Catkiller really have the votes? Surely, there are more than three so-called “conservatives” in the Senate who would vote against this type of radical rule change. Or has the GOP sunk so low? Update: A few days old now, but ah well: Salon offers a handy nuclear primer.

Nuclear Apostasy.

“The Republicans’ hands aren’t clean on this either. What we did with Bill Clinton’s nominees — about 62 of them — we just didn’t give them votes in committee or we didn’t bring them up.” On ABC’s This Week, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) pretty much announces he’s not voting for the nuclear option. “‘My goodness,’ Hagel said, ‘you’ve got 100 United States senators. Some of us might be moderately intelligent enough to figure this out. We would, I think, debase our system and fail our country if we don’t [work it out.]”

Nuclear Chicken.

Despite a (somewhat dismaying but probably politically necessary) attempt by top Senate Dems to achieve a compromise on the question of judicial nominations, Catkiller Frist remains committed to go nuclear to preserve his presidential prospects. Two-thirds of the country think the nuclear option is a bad idea, but will that be enough to sway the moderate GOP?

Casus Belli.

Knowing full-well the Dems will filibuster, the GOP initiates Catkiller’s nuclear gambit by bringing forth two of Dubya’s most controversial judicial nominees, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Richman Owen, to a vote. (The fact that both are women, and Brown is black, has of course absolutely no bearing on the Republicans’ political strategy.)

Nuclear Proliferation.

With Catkiller’s nuclear primary gambit waiting in the wings, the GOP and Dems try to rally Republican moderates to their side on the judicial filibuster question. With John McCain (R-AZ) and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) already against the proposition and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) also doubtful, the swing votes include John Warner (R-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Two Suns in the Sunset.

“‘I think Senator Frist has backed himself into a corner where I don’t see how he can avoid pulling the nuclear trigger,’ said Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.” According to the WP and various lookers-on, the Senate Majority Leader is “all but certain” to go nuclear on the question of judicial filibusters in the next few weeks, mainly so he can shore up his possible presidential candidacy with freak-show conservatives. In addition, his nascent 2008 bid also explains why Catkiller has chosen to appear on a forthcoming fundie telecast that claims Democrats are “against people of faith.” That’s a low blow even from you, Senator…How dare you? Update: Election 2008 maneuvering heats up among the GOP as Frist’s allies go after John McCain for his apostasy on the nuclear option.