For Filibuster, The Senator Goes Nuclear (The Nuclear Option originated on Free Republic)

The New York Sun ^ | April 29, 2005 | Alicia Colon

[Cboldt]

More history here (not for you, you already know it):

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Gold_Gupta_JLPP_article.pdf

highly recommended

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Interesting read.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Vice President Nixon tried to get the 1957 Civil Rights Act passed by bringing it directly to the Senate floor. Unfortunately, it was a Democratic Congress and the Republicans were outvoted.

It's getting harder and harder for the Dims to live in ignorance of their own history...

[Sgt_Schultze]

Thanks for the post. I thought the moniker "nuclear option" referred to the childish tantrums the democrats were sure to throw once the Republicans restored order.

[SAWTEX]

Why not just declare the senate rule unconstitutional
as it clearly is. A senate rule can not trump Article II
Section 2 paragraph 2. When not otherwise stated as in
the case of treaties a simple majority has always been
the default. The senate can make rules for themselves as
long as they do not conflict with the constitution. What
am I missing here?

[rwfromkansas]

Frist's comments on the Senate floor weren't weak yesterday, but some on here want to rip him for trying to avert a complete shutdown of the Senate, which IS what will happen when we go nuclear.

His compromise, which I sense is his final offer (it dang well better be) is very good and strikes a good balance that all can support. But, if the Dems reject it, it is nuclear time, no matter what the consequences.

[Cboldt]

Why not just declare the senate rule unconstitutional as it clearly is. A senate rule can not trump Article II Section 2 paragraph 2. When not otherwise stated as in the case of treaties a simple majority has always been the default. The senate can make rules for themselves as long as they do not conflict with the constitution. What am I missing here?

The Sente has been dysfunctional on the point of unlimited debate and unanimous consent for quite awhile. They like being dysfunctional. The public lacks the wisdom to see it, and the will to make it stop.

[Tribune7]

Many people may recall my first posting this idea back in February 2003.

Oh, man and now we're never going to hear the end of it I guess :-)

[expatpat]

It is certainly true that if V.P. Colfax had the power to make filibusters legal, then V.P. Cheney has the power to make them illegal. It was after all only a V.P.s ruling that made the filibuster legal. For over half a century before 1872 what we call the filibuster was illegal.

Good and interesting point. Did Michael Zak make the same point to Frist?

[expatpat]

I think his final-offer compromise is designed to ensure the 51st vote from weak-kneed Republican Senators.

[Still Thinking]

I quit too, and so did my fiance'....twice.

I'm trying to cut back, at least.

[davidosborne]

BTTT

[King Prout]

I've used some of your work to both silence and shock people

as have I... that and the racist history of gun-control in America. Tends to make leftists go into brain-cramps

[Grand Old Partisan]

Yes, the first gun controls in the USA were enacted by Democrats to keep blacks unarmed.

[votelife]

These are the Senators to call to help President Bush get a vote on his embattled judicial nominees:

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Washington, DC: (202) 224-2235
Phoenix, AZ: (602) 952-2410

Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)
Washington, DC: (202) 224-2921
Providence, RI: (401) 453-5294

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Washington, DC: (202) 224-5344
Augusta, ME: (207) 622-8292

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

Washington, DC: (202) 224-4224
Omaha, NE: (402) 758-8981

Senator John Warner (R-VA)

Washington, DC: (202) 224-2023
Roanoke, VA: (540) 857-2676

[Ouderkirk]

Frist's comments on the Senate floor weren't weak yesterday, but some on here want to rip him for trying to avert a complete shutdown of the Senate, which IS what will happen when we go nuclear.

Let's go nuclear. I fail to see what the big deal is if they shut down the Senate? Even if the Repubs run it...SHUT IT DOWN !!! nothing good ever comes when the legislature is in session. More taxes silly prescription drug benefits more user fees more restrictions., and on and on.

Shut it down should be the mantra here