Posted on 05/20/2005 3:22:31 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The Senate's Republican majority today began a countdown to a vote that has been dubbed the "nuclear option," a decision on whether to end the ability of the chamber's minority to use filibusters to block the appointment of federal judges.
After a third day of debate on one of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) filed a cloture motion to end the debate and put the nomination to a vote. The cloture vote, scheduled for Tuesday, would trigger a series of steps leading to the "nuclear option" -- unless a bipartisan group of moderate senators succeeds in negotiating a compromise to head it off.
The cloture motion was filed by Cornyn on behalf of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who was traveling today. With strong backing from the White House, Frist wants to ensure that Bush's nominees to the federal bench get "a fair up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor, with a simple majority of the 100 senators deciding the matter, instead of allowing Democrats to block nominees through filibusters, which require 60 votes to break. Republicans say filibuster threats mean that, for practical purposes, a "supermajority" of 60 votes is required to confirm the nominees, rather than the traditional 51 votes.
After submitting the cloture motion, which was signed by 18 senators, Cornyn said there would be a fourth day of debate Monday on the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.
Cornyn rejected the idea that proceeding with a de facto rule change to end filibusters against judicial nominees would lead to a "constitutional crisis." He added, "This is a controversy, a disagreement, not a crisis."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
FOX NEWS ALERT: An Outbreak of Gonads Among Certain Republican Senators
Tick, tick, tick, tick......
Queue the twilight zone theme, the game is on.....
That can be series unless promptly treated by a doctor.
How is Owens one of Bush's "most controversial" nominations, as stated in this article? The republicans should have just changed this rule long ago. It's procedural, most Americans want judges to have a vote by the full Senate, and it's not worth all the hand wringing that's been going on.
"FOX NEWS ALERT: An Outbreak of Gonads Among Certain Republican Senators"
Medical miracles happen everyday.
Nuke 'em!
They had to wait while Frist was out of town. Perhaps he should leave town more often.
Frist is a doctor isn't he?
LOL! (But true)
Joanie, just what you've been praying for. By the way, what do you think of Tuesday's PA election results?
Obligatory Nuclear pic omitted
All the Dims in congress are paupers, ya know.
Hoo ray
"How is Owens one of Bush's "most controversial" nominations, as stated in this article?"
It is because the Dems and MSM say it is. Never mind her record, that's not important.
Blocked? In what way? Is he including all judicial nominees that were not approved even in a floor vote in addition to those that didn't get out of committee? Democrats just can't get it throught their heads that they are the minority now.
With strong backing from the White House, Frist wants to ensure that Bush's nominees to the federal bench get "a fair up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor, with a simple majority of the 100 senators deciding the matter, instead of allowing Democrats to block nominees through filibusters, which require 60 votes to break. Republicans say filibuster threats mean that, for practical purposes, a "supermajority" of 60 votes is required to confirm the nominees, rather than the traditional 51 votes.
Rephrased, ever so slightly ...
With strong backing from the White House, Frist wants to ensure that Bush's nominees to the federal bench get "a fair up-or-down vote" on the Senate floor, with a simple majority of the 100 senators deciding the matter, instead of allowing Democrats to block nominees through refusing to vote. The Senate rule referred to as cloture requires 60 votes to get to the vote over an objection. The Democrats assert that a "supermajority" of 60 votes is required to either confirm or reject the nominees, rather than the 51 votes contemplated under the Constitution.
Frist already did this. He's called not only for en end to filibusters, but he also admitted it was wrong to keep nominees in committed for political purposes. "It was wrong then and it's wrong now".
I believe there is some serious double counting, as well as counting nominations that were submitted very close to the end of Clinton's term(s).
President Clinton nominated 22 people to the 103rd Congress to be Circuit Court justices. Three were returned, but all three were renominated and confirmed by the 104th Congress. The eventual confirmation rate for these nominees was 100%.President Clinton nominated 17 new people to the 104th Congress to be Circuit Court justices, in addition to the three renominations. Of these 17 new nominations, 1 was withdrawn, 1 was returned and not renominated in the 105th, and one was renominated in the 105th, returned there, and then not renominated. The other 14 were eventually confirmed (although one had to wait until the 106th). The eventual confirmation rate for these new nominees was 82%.
President Clinton nominated 23 new people to the 105th Congress to be Circuit Court justices, in addition to seven who were renominations. Of the 23 new nominations, two were returned and not renominated. Two were renominated in the 106th only to be returned again and never confirmed. One was withdrawn. The other 18 were eventually confirmed. The eventual confirmation rate for these new nominees was 78%.
President Clinton nominated 28 new people to the 106th Congress to be Circuit Court justices, in addition to six renominations. 1 was withdrawn. 15 were returned and never renominated. 12 were eventually confirmed (including one who was renominated by President Bush). The eventual confirmation rate for these nominees was 43%.
In aggregate, President Clinton nominated 90 people to be Circuit Court justices during the four Congresses during his term. 66 were eventually confirmed. The eventual confirmation rate for his nominees was 73%. He had 13 nominees who were returned but eventually confirmed; 12 of those were confirmed by the subsequent Congress. Of the 20 returms that Clinton had during his first three Congresses (where he would be in term for a subsequent Congress), he renominated 16 (80%) of them. Over 80% of them were eventually confirmed, with a full three quarters confirmed in the very next Congress.
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