"Talkathon" - Democratic filibuster of judicial nominees

[Rower_CPU]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned this.

link (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/14/senate.talkathon/index.html)

After nearly two days of round-the-clock debate, Senate Republicans Friday failed to break Democratic filibusters on three of President Bush's nominees to federal appellate courts.

The three are Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; and California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fifty-three lawmakers voted to break the filibusters and proceed to a vote on the nominations. That was seven votes short of the 60 needed under Senate rules. The Owen vote was 53-42, and the Kuhl and Brown votes were 53-43.

In protest of Democratic filibusters of Bush's judicial nominees, Republicans kept the Senate in session from Wednesday night until Friday morning, forcing Democrats to stay on the floor at all times to keep their filibusters going.

The 53 votes to end the filibusters Friday was exactly the tally in support of ending the filibuster against Owen back in July, when Republicans last tried to break it. So after 40 hours of continual talk, not a single vote changed.

[zimv20]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned this.


yeah, we'd all just get into an argument about it

;-)

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by zimv20
yeah, we'd all just get into an argument about it

;-)

Ha! It's still newsworthy. :p

Personally, I'm happy they were able to stick to their guns and show some solidarity in shutting down these nominations.

[mactastic]

Yeah it's funny to hear the Republic types gripe about the 4 nominations that haven't gotten through yet. Should they be surprised when their own lack of confirmation history comes to light? This is just an escalation of a fight that continues from the last administration.

[idea_hamster]

I don't blame the GOP for the whining about Dem "obstruction" -- party sentiment like that comes from the top. This originates from W. (Consider his own comment that there "should be some way to force a vote" in the Senate -- total failure to understand both Senate process and separation of powers.)

And it's not a surprise either. W has spent his entire life ignoring the rules -- we can't really be shocked that he wants to ignore this one too.

The good news is that W is finally learning about how you can't always just ignore the rules. Sometimes, the rules apply.

[rainman::|:|]

okay, here's the best part. the reps were bitching about democrats forcing this to go on, so they went to the strom thurmond room to hold the press conference... thurmond, of course, being the man who once filabustered singlehandedly for something like 24 hours 16 minutes to defeat a civil rights bill. his record still stands. the more i think about that one, the more i laugh.

:)
pnw

[jonapete2001]

I forsee a changing of the senate rules by the republican majority to ban filabustering. It will come when the senate is on recess.

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by jonapete2001
I forsee a changing of the senate rules by the republican majority to ban filabustering. It will come when the senate is on recess.

Majority rules again, eh, even at the expense of democracy?

I would be very curious to hear your opinion if the roles were reversed.

[SPG]

The republicans of the past decade have been a particularly nasty bunch. Shutting down the government with Gingrich, calling the cops to remove Democrats who disagreed, banning the Dems from the committee meetings, drafting and revising the legislation when nobody is looking, and all kinds of dirty little tricks.
This is what happens when you get fundamentalists in power, they believe so much in their dogma that the rules don't matter anymore.

[mactacular]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Majority rules again, eh, even at the expense of democracy?

I would be very curious to hear your opinion if the roles were reversed.

this does not make sense. if the rules change in congress to disallow filabustering would not the democratic process be working. Is not democracy driven by the majority. If the majority destroys democracy "in your mind", should the minority rule. That would be chaos.

[SPG]

The government was designed to work under a system of checks and balances to not only keep the branches in check, but to keep an extremist group from seizing all the power. The republicans only want to make these changes when they have the power. Let us not forget that the republicans kept dozens of Clinton judicial nominees from ever reaching the confirmation process. Also the four judges being fillibustered are the most extreme of the extreme and should not ever have been considered for these positions unless someone wanted them in their for pure idealogical reasons.

[mactastic]

Originally posted by jonapete2001
I forsee a changing of the senate rules by the republican majority to ban filabustering. It will come when the senate is on recess.

No it won't. There are still enough Republican senators there from the days when the Democrats were in charge, and they will be loath to give up the one thing that they could use to have clout in the minority. The wise ones know the pendulum swings both ways, and that they won't be in the majority forever.