Call me old fashioned... but I'd like Frist to force an actual 24/7 filibuster before "pulling the trigger."
Cancel the lobbyist junkets, the golf games, even weekends with the family. Live on the Senate floor 24/7 until the Rats capitulate.
That is how the filibuster is supposed to work.
I'm also an old fashioned kind of guy.
But Bill Frist hasn't got the power to force an old fashioned filibuster. The Senate rules were changed a long time ago, were adopted more or less intact at the beginning of this session, and can't now be changed except on a 60-40 vote to do so.
Too bad. Now we have filibuster lite, for good or ill. Seems like ill to me since it allows minority obstructionism as no real political cost.
The reason why we can pull off the "consstitutional option" is that it doesn't actually change any rule of the Senate. It is simply a ruling by the presiding officer that the filibuster rules don't apply to advise and consent to judicial appointments. Once made, the ruling stands unless overridden by a majority vote.
It's definitely the way to get this done.
I agree! I want to turn on C-SPAN2 at 3:52 in the morning and see Sen. Byrd reading from his old KKK handbook on the floor of the Senate. If we have to endure C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 on our cable systems, let's get some entertainment value out of it!
I say DO IT, ALREADY!!! Either make them filibuster 24/7 or force the issue the way the constitution was written. JUST DO SOMETHING!!