Posted on 04/16/2005 7:55:23 AM PDT by Valin
April 14, 2005 Not. One. Dime. Contrary to its own headline, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans on dawdling for weeks longer before finally addressing the issue of Democratic obstructionism on nominations for the federal bench, the Washington Post reports in its Friday edition:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is all but certain to press for a rule change that would ban filibusters of judicial nominations in the next few weeks, despite misgivings by some of his fellow Republicans and a possible Democratic backlash that could paralyze the chamber, close associates said yesterday. The strategy carries significant risks for the Tennessee Republican, who is weighing a 2008 presidential bid. It could embroil the Senate in a bitter stalemate that would complicate passage of President Bush's agenda and raise questions about Frist's leadership capabilities. Should he fail to make the move or to get the necessary votes, however, Frist risks the ire of key conservative groups that will play big roles in the 2008 GOP primaries.
Frist feels he has no acceptable options to seeking the rule change unless there is a last-minute compromise, which neither party considers plausible, according to senators and aides close to the situation. "I think it's going to happen," Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said this week, although he would prefer that Frist wait to allow more legislation to pass before the Senate explodes in partisan recriminations. Aides privy to senior Republicans' thinking concur with Thune.
To hell with Frist, to hell with Thune, and to hell with the GOP if they wait until the session is half-over before finding their spine or other significant parts of their anatomy. The GOP campaigned on judicial nominations as the second-highest priority for the Senate, and the electorate rewarded them with a healthy gain of four seats, remarkable for an election in which the incumbent president won by a tight margin. After spending a record amount of money on supporting Republican candidates, the electorate has sat back and watched as the Democrats, led by Harry Reid, have uncorked one lunatic manuever after another: challenging Ohio's slate of electors, holding up Condoleezza Rice's nomination while people like Mark Dayton outright call her a liar, and attempting to extort the White House into giving up its Constitutional assignment of nominating the judges the President sees fit for Senate approval.
What has this bunch of Republican milquetoasts done? Nothing.
Why? Apparently, they've changed their priorities since the election. No longer are judicial nominations the leading priority. In fact, they've done everything they can to backpedal from the frightening spectre of Harry Reid, for Pete's sake. Now they claim that they want to pass as much legislation as they can before the vote on nominations comes up ... meaning that the judges are actually the lowest priority for Frist and his band of merry cowards.
News flash: if we can't reverse the generations-long trend of increasing judicial activism, the act of passing legislation will eventually be rendered meaningless. The judges, as we have seen, will simply continue to legislate from the bench, ignoring Congress and the Executive and transforming us from a representative democracy to a secular mullahcracy, where lifetime appointments in black robes make all the decisions for us.
That's what the Republicans warned about when they campaigned in 2002 and 2004. Now it's time to step up and do something about it -- but despite their greater numbers and a clear signal from the electorate that rejects obstructionists (see Tom Daschle's enforced retirement), the GOP suddenly quails at the thought of taking action.
I have been a loyal member of the GOP since I cast my first vote. I have worked campaigns and championed candidates well before I ever posted anything on my blog at CQ. However, with the defection of John McCain and the lack of any real response from party leadership on the issue, I have to take a stand and demand either action or accountability -- and this is the time to do it.
Not. One. Dime. The next time Ken Mehlman sends you a request for money, that's the message he needs to get back. We ponied up in 2004, and in 2002, and in 2000. The GOP not only has not delivered, its current leadership won't even try. Frist and Rick Santorum claim they don't have the votes. Balderdash -- they don't have the leadership to get the votes. I'm not going to fund or support people who won't try to win, especially when the issue is so important.
Not. One. Dime. We're not in an election year, so this makes it easy for the Republicans to get this message to party leaders. No balls, no Blue Chips, boys. I don't mean just for the Senate, either. I mean for the entire Republican party. Feeding a fever may be good medicine, but feeding a failure only makes it last longer. Perhaps hunger will work where courage has so obviously failed.
Not. One. Dime. And when a vote does come, those Republicans who wind up supporting the minority's extortion over the majority in defiance of the Constitution will never see another dime from me -- but their opponents will, at every level of contest. Honestly, with Republicans like these in the Senate, we may as well have Democrats.
Not. One. Dime. If Bill Frist can't lead the GOP, then let's get rid of him now and find someone with the stomach for it. As long as he dithers, he'll never see a dime out of me for any election. Kay Bailey Hutchinson would have more guts and could pull the troops in line better; maybe we should give her a try as Majority Leader for a while.
It's time to send a real message to the Republicans about their priorities and their lack of leadership. This fight has been brewing for months, and it should have already been resolved by now. If they can't hack it, then we will find -- and fund -- the leaders who can.
Posted by Captain Ed at April 14, 2005 10:20 PM
FYI
http://www.northernallianceradio.com/
Noon Central time
Some of the BEST talk radio going.
The good people of TN and the rest of us should let him know via phone or fax that he has let us down and had better get the JOB done pronto!
Senator Bill Frist
Office of Senator Bill Frist
509 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3344
202-228-1264 (fax)
Call or Fax Monday and tell this Republican whimp to get off the dime! We're not interested in petty politics!
RINO's.....the whole bunch of 'em.
What's the point in having control of both houses of congress AND the presidency if you CAN'T ramrod your agenda through?
Its time they steamroll the Dummycrats into submission and make them pay dearly for their crap since the communist FDR. Make Reid and Pelosi nobodies from nowhere. No, I don't believe in consensus and debate. I want conservative policies implememnted and I don't really care if that freezes out the liberals. The libbies belong in Git'mo with the rest of the traitors anyway.
To hell with the blue states and the moron liberals who live there.
IMO ANY Republican who doesn't vote the partyline on THIS should be invited to leave the party. I know this sounds harsh but IMO this is that important and the message needs to be sent to the members of the GOP Senate Caucus.
It's smart to build up a good PR bulwark before dropping the bomb. The little children that are stamping their feet and demanding he 'do it now', are just that. Little kids throwing temper tantrums.
I want it done right.
REMEMBER, we're talking about 6 members who are "on the fence".
Not. One. Dime. of party money to any senator that rebels or refuses to support the elimination of the filibuster for judicial nominees. Right on Captain Ed.
I'm calling McCain's office on Monday.
I want it done right.
Agree, the question is WHEN? And a message is being sent to the Senate leadership that the base is not happy.
IMO Frist can use this when he talks to the 6 who are on the fence.. McCain has already said he's voteing with the Democrats on this.
IMO he should be barred from GOP caucus meetings, and told that political life as he knew it is over.
What good do you think calling McCain's office will do?
He hasn't explained explain this yet and I doubt that he will. Vote the bugger out!
http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm
(SNIP)
For years, I was confused by his actions with respect to this issue. He would oppose any POW/MIA related piece of legislation, including the recent Missing Personnel Act, and the bill I sponsored through Fred Upton, the POW/MIA Rescue Act, which would have granted political asylum to any southeast Asian national who brought a living American POW to freedom.
Why would anyone oppose such a bill ... particularly a former POW?
He disagreed with the findings of the 1990 Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which concluded that our government had indeed abandoned some of our men when the war ended. '
Then, in 1991, he was appointed to serve on the long-awaited Senate Select Committee, which was created to investigate the entire issue. Chairman John Kerry wanted to appoint him as co-chairman, but this was greeted by a national uproar from the American Legion, and virtually every national veteran's group in existence who were already suspicious of his previous actions.
U.S. Sen, Bob Smith from New Hampshire was chosen instead, a minor victory at the time by POW activists, .
This particular Senate Committee was single-handedly undermined (in my opinion) by the actions of John McCain. During the course of their several month-long investigation, they heard unbelievable testimony from hundreds of people. No less than four former Secretaries of Defense testified that men were left behind. National Security analysts testified that they tracked the movements of our men long after the war ended. Radio transcripts of American POWs being moved in Laos were recorded in the early 1980s:
There were satellite photos of pilot distress signals taken as recently as 1992, complete with pilot name and authenticator code numbers. Former Soviet Commanders testified that they debriefed our men in the Soviet Union, and even Boris Yeltsin admitted American POWs had been transferred there.
No less than four committee investigators provided the Senators of their estimates ranging from a low of 150 to as many as 600 men who they believed were still alive and in captivity. This doesn't even include the testimony they heard behind closed doors that supposedly endangered our national security.
The conclusions of this committee was that "no credible evidence was provided to support the possibility that Americans were still alive and in captivity," This, despite documents from Soviet Archives that showed that the Vietnamese were holding more than 1,200 American POWs, and released less than 600, John McCain signed his name on this incredibly flawed report.
I'm calling McCain's office on Monday.
I have a feeling that youi'll not be the only one.
I'm talking about the whole of them who should have invoked this option the day after Bush was inaugurated the second time. To hell with their poll numbers or re-elections.
The ones who aren't publicly excoriating those six morons are as guilty as those six traitors.
McCain is the biggest TRAITOR of all. And I could give a sh#t about his time at the Hanoi Hilton. AFAIC he's still an anti-American traitor.
The GOP should all blast the conservative agenda through congress, regardless of what the MSM or the Dummycrats say.
And while we're at it, PURGE all "moderates" from the party.
Why do you need PR when you're in the driver's seat? This is when you run roughshod over the opposition, (read ENEMY--yes the Dems are the enemy!), and make it so they cannot ever oppose you again. Read Clausewitz and Macchiavelli. They were right.
"You must so thoroughly destroy your opponent so he cannot hope to recover in three generations or more."
"The Prince, (i.e. the GOP leadership), is justified in doing anything that consolidates his power and advances his cause."
Do it and let the chips fall where they may. Let the liberals whine. They're SO good at it anyways.
Well put!
Not another dime until the borders are CLOSED.
All Frist needs to do is threaten the likes of snowe and collins with Roll Call Votes. and the two little gal pals will crumble.
I also wrote "Not another dime" across the recent request from the RNC for cash.
The mailing included and opinion survey that did not even mention ILLegal Immigration or border control. Plenty of other BS, but not this most important security issue.
IMPO
HC
Agree - that is what I have been writing on solicitations sent to me. I have decided now to go further - for every solicitation I send back will be a copy of a check I have sent to the Minuteman Project. I may not be able to afford large amounts but, in my opinion, the Minutemen are FAR more for this country than the Republicans in Washington - and that is from the TOP down. Again - in my opinion.
Shocking news. When did he leave the McCain Party of One?
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