Vice President Cheney can order an immediate vote to confirm Miguel Estrada

Back to Basics forthe Republican Party ^ | February 28, 2003 | Michael Zak

[Grand Old Partisan]

Another card for the Republicans to play is for Vice President Cheney to assert a long-dormant power as President of the Senate. The last time this was done was by Vice President Nixon, who ordered the 1957 Civil Rights bill directly to the Senate floor, by-passing the Judiciary Committee. How do I know this? I wrote Back to Basics for the Republican Party http://www.republicanbasics.com/ The book is a history of the GOP from the Republican point of view.

[MonroeDNA]

That would be great!!!!

[Thane_Banquo]

The Democrats would howl like stuck pigs. It would be cool.

[Texas_Jarhead]

what happened to the first thread from 20 minutes ago?

[hoosiermama]

Great idea. Where can you buy the book? Please freepmail information.

Gives me thought: If this can be done at any time, maybe they're just toying with the rats.

[CyberAnt]

If this is true - it will have made my week - which has been particularly knarly!!

[bigdog]

My book, "Back to Basics for the Republican Party", is a history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. My presentations to Republican groups often get standing ovations.

I'm Standing.

Does Bill Frist know this?

[Cicero]

Does the Republican senate leadership know this? If not, perhaps someone in a position to do so should call it to their attention.

I agree. They can bitch and moan all they like, but if the Democrats pull a once-in-a-lifetime fast one, there's no reason why the Republicans should refrain from doing the same thing.

They have to do something. Letting the Democrats win this one certainly won't make the next one any easier.

[IncPen]

I'm all for this, but not before we beat the Dems over the head with Estrada for being duplicitous, race-baiting, two-faced weasels.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Servant of the Nine]

Go for it!!

Bust their Chops.

Break their Spirits.

So9

[Servant of the Nine]

Go for it!!

Bust their Chops.

Break their Spirits.

So9

[Servant of the Nine]

Go for it!!

Bust their Chops.

Break their Spirits.

So9

[Robert_Paulson2]

I don't believe you.
prove this can be done.

what part of the constitution STATES that we can do this.
article, section please.

ONE precedent, without the constitutional context does not mean we can do this. I WISH it did.

What was your theory as to why we can. I damnedstraight KNOW why we should...
Don't blow smoke up our noses and then NOT tell us about how and why this is so. If we could do this WHY have we not already done so?

please... get back to the details POSTE HASTE.

[B-bone]

ordered . . . directly to the Senate floor, by-passing the Judiciary Committee.

I'm not sure this would apply in this case. The nomination has already been voted out of committee and is on the Senate floor.

The issue at the present time is the need for 60 votes for cloture to end discussion and bring this to a vote. If the Rules allow the president of the senate to bypass the cloture requirement than it would solve the fillabuster issue.

Can you tell us more about this specific power? Would it apply to the issue of cloture?

[NonValueAdded]

The last time this was done was by Vice President Nixon, who ordered the 1957 Civil Rights bill directly to the Senate floor, by-passing the Judiciary Committee.

Wow, I didn't know that! I've heard the efforts from Rush, Sean, and others to remind us it was the Republicans that actually made the civil rights legislation happen, but I had no idea the Republicans had to go to this extent.

I can hear the new message now! "The last time the RATs pulled this filibuster obstructionism was to stop the Civil Rights bill. It took Tricky Dick (said lovingly) to free the bill. Here they go again!"

[craig_eddy]

You think that's surprising, check this out:

[Jackie Robinson] met privately with both candidates, and was disappointed when Kennedy honestly told him that, being from Massachusetts, he didn't know much about the problems of black people. Someone who had been in Congress for as long as Kennedy had, Robinson reasoned, should make it his business to know about the problems of black people. Therefore, by default, Robinson threw his support to Richard Nixon and campaigned for Nixon in the general election. He later wrote that it was important for blacks to have representation in both political parties so their support would not be taken for granted.

Robinson soon came to regret his decision to support Nixon. The most immediate result was that he was pressured to take a leave of absence from his job as a columnist at the New York Post, a liberal newspaper. Robinson was also soon disappointed by Nixon's inaction on civil rights issues. When Martin Luther King was jailed in Georgia late in the campaign, Kennedy quickly moved to secure King's release while Nixon did nothing. Robinson fired off a letter of protest to Nixon, but received no substantial reply, and Nixon lost the election days later.

From Jackie Robinson in Politics and the Civil Rights Movement.

[BfloGuy]

what part of the constitution STATES that we can do this.

I don't believe this is a constitutional power. This is a little-known Senate procedural rule -- if I read the post correctly.

[A CA Guy]

Have you Emailed Rush and Sean about this?

Any response from the RNC?

[Congressman Billybob]

Assume that Vice President Cheney, as President of the Senate, CAN order the nomination of Estrada directly to the floor. How does that solve the problem of unlimited debate absent 60 votes for cloture? Isn't the Estrada nomination ALREADY on the floor?

Please reply further.

Congressman Billybob

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