Well, Rush is right 97+% of the time, but this time he's not.
If the Dem's had gone through with their stated intentions if the nuke had been done a couple weeks ago, there would have had to be a "cloture" vote on everything from nominations for dog catcher to the most "important" legislative action - and every single "amendment" to every single action - followed by a nominal I believe 30 hours of "debate" as well as whatever "debate" preceded the cloture vote. Typically, these things get done by "unanimous consent" in the Senate and many things are simple voice vote, often on a whole group of issues or nominations at once.
I disagree that time has been lost by trying things this way. For certain, there would be two less conservative judges on the bench by now, and we'd be in the middle of the 30hrs on the other if all went well. If the Nuke had been done, that would have laid to rest for all time the question of whether a President would get an upordown on his nominees, but for this session of Congress, at least, the Dems could very well have ground business to a painful crawl, as they threatened.
Who would win the PR battle then? - I dunno...
This is worth trying.
I'm not celebrating these three judges as he's right they ought to have been on the bench long ago, but I am celebrating that the Demodogs have agreed not to filibuster judges for the next 1.5yrs --- We'll see.
I don't think the 'deal' will last forever, but at least three of the most constructionist judges in the nation are now on the Federal Bench.
They agreed not to filibuster unless in undefined extrodinary circumstance. The Democrats consider 51% of the American public extrodinary for electing G.W. President. This turn of phrase does not engender trust.
This is not the same as agreeing not to filibuster throughout the rest of this session of Congress.
I would counter your contention that cloture would be called slowing activity on every item, with the reality that filibusters have been extended to cabinet positions. A direct consequence of having been emboldened by the use of the filibuster in Judicial nominations. If not defeated, it'll spread into other areas like a virus. Since in either instance they will find a way to slow and delay even in legislative matters (where is S.S. right now?) it is better to uphold the Constitution than to leave it in question.
Except in "exceptional circumstances", which means whatever the Dems want it to mean. They 7 dwarfs won't be able to renege on their pledge to not vote for the Constitutional option because the Dems will, with the help of their allies in the MSM, prepare the battlefield for each Supreme Court justice and many lower court judges as well by constant vilification of them as "right wing extremists", "out the mainstream", etc, etc. The only non-extreme cases will be ones that would occur if Bush nominates RINOs or DemocRats to the courts.
Giddy.