LIVE THREAD: Estrada Filibuster

http://freerepublic.com ^ | March 3, 2003

[Dolphy]

Thank you for all of the great commentary today. I try to keep up from the office and you, along with many others here, do a wonderful job.

[Iwo Jima]

Thanks for the memory refresher.

[Iwo Jima]

Thanks for the heads up. Do you think that Larry Klayman and/or Judicial Watch will be among the demonstrators?

[Iwo Jima]

A grueling 24/7 filibuster could be one way of wiping out a whole slew of Democrat derelicts. In fact, now that I think on it, this is obviously a devious plot by President Bush to wipe out the Dems! How diabolical!

[VRWC_minion]

Speaking of voices, where is Alan Dershowitz in all this ? Unless I missed something, his silence seems to be interesting ? I wonder if he supports the filibuster.

[CathyRyan]

Just back the ambulance up to the door and start hauling them out as they drop works for me. Teddy should drop from the DTs in short order.

[arasina]

Ole Crusty is the outfit PIPS wears sometimes.

Must be more than sometimes if it's ole crusty. :-)

Darn it, I'm just not with the lingo or acronyms here yet. Now I have to know what PIPS represents. LOL

[Jen]

PIPS = Pig In a Pant Suit = Hitlery = Hillary!

Welcome!

[Jen]

This may help...

Lexicon of FreeRepublic, 4th Edition

[RobFromGa]

Pig in a Pants Suit

[RobFromGa]

Here's the transcript of Rush Limbaugh re: Estrada:

'Splainin' the GOP Estrada Strategery

March 3, 2003

Let's retrace our steps here on this Miguel Estrada business from last week because this is what caused hell to break loose. There was a Fox News story on Friday that said essentially that the Republican Senate leadership had decided they weren't going to win this battle, so they were going to call for a cloture vote, with only 55 votes for Estrada, which would mean he would lose. This would also mean that the Democrats would be successful in corrupting the Constitution.

The Constitution says that judges need only a simple majority, 51 votes to be confirmed. Well, Estrada, if they call this vote, is going to get 55 and lose. That's tearing up and shredding the Constitution. We'd heard all along that the Republicans are going to hold fast, make sure the Democrats continue to filibuster until they tire of it, and President Bush said last week that he would stand by this nomination until Estrada is confirmed. Then this Fox story came along, making it look like the Republican leadership was going to give up. This caused us to get a couple phone calls, one from Senator Rick Santorum's office, and one from the office of Senator Orrin Hatch saying that the Fox News story was not totally correct, that they are not caving, and that they're going to hang tough.

GOP Senators May Call Democrat Bluff

Over the weekend, the strategery became a little clearer. I've been under the impression that if the Republicans call for a vote and lose it, it's over and Estrada is defeated. But that's not the case. Here's why: The only way you can end a filibuster is to beat it with 60 votes or to have the side conducting it give up. So the strategy here is to call a vote and lose it and call another vote and call another vote and keep making the Democrats vote against a Hispanic nominee, vote and vote and vote and vote so that these Democrats are on record time and again voting against the first Hispanic nominee to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now, I don't know if this strategy will prevail, but it's thought by some that this could force the Democrats' hand. The Democrats might not even want one vote. They're just bluffing, trying to convince the Republicans they don't have 60 votes, so they shouldn't even call for the vote, because they don't want to set the precedent of a nominee needing 60 votes, whereas the Constitution says he only needs 51.

The Republican answer to this is, "Oh, yeah, fine? You guys say you have the votes, let's see them. Go ahead and vote against Estrada - then explain it your Hispanic constituents." We'll just have to wait and see if this is how it plays out, but this is the GOP Senate strategery, as I understand it.

[fightinJAG]

Yeah, remember when Rita Cosby totally botched her report of a Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore, inaccurately thinking it was a major victory for Albore when it was a slam dunk for Dubya.

[fightinJAG]

Estrada also is about Hatch. Don't forget his SCOTUS ambitions, too.

[fightinJAG]

At least if they called the ambulance, you might get a glimpse of John Edwards running after it.

[hoosiermama]

Finally caught up....Listened to Rush on the radio after I left here. His point about Rats voting against cloture the first time it was voted on, as a duty to the party, and then voting FOR cloture on the second or third vote was the thing that stood out the most to me. I imagine we have several Dim Senators who have committed to that. Ignore the first vote! It's of no importance.

If the cloture vote is Thursday, it will be perfect timing to start the 24/7 or at least to hold the Senate over for the weekend. (They recently have had days off, so they shouldn't complain about working a little over time.)

Expect alot of quorum calls....just to make sure they are "In chambers". Prepare to keep some late hours. Put some Chili on the back burner, cause I don't think the Repubs are going to put this one on it. Interesting weekend!

[fightinJAG]

the ONLY pantsuit she wears

That's where the "crusty" part comes in.

[deport]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/855823/posts?page=851#851

FYI

[Howlin]

Oh, good point!

[PhiKapMom]

Someone said on here earlier in this thread and now I cannot find it that Sen Frist said he would request a vote on Tuesday but he was requesting votes on other candidates today and Tuesday. I just finished reading Senator Frist comments in the Congressional Record for Wednesday and Thursday and he did not mention a cloture vote. He asked for unanimous consent to vote and then named some days but no mention of cloture!

If he submits a motion to invoke cloture, it will have to be tomorrow if there is a vote scheduled for Thursday. I have been all over the Senate website and I cannot find any reference to the vote.

I am less than impressed by Garret BTW since he already said in his article that they had an historic vote on Wednesday night and it went bad for Republicans. He didn't know the difference between cloture and quorum call.

I will keep looking to see if the schedule for tomorrow is out yet. Normally at the end of the day's business, they give the schedule for the next day.

[PhiKapMom]

I just read the entire Congressional Record as I stated earlier for what Senator Frist has said for last Wednesday including Wednesday/Thursday early morning and all day Thursday.

Senator Frist asked for Unanimous consent to vote several times. He never mentioned the word about voting on a motion to invoke cloture.