ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Richard Lessner has a piece today in Human Events titled "Filibuster Fight a Crucial Test of Frist's Leadership." An excerpt:

All across America one hears the same refrain from grassroots conservatives: If we cannot get qualified, constitutionalist judges confirmed with a conservative president in the White House and 55 Republicans in the Senate, then what's the point? Why bother working hard to elect Republicans? If we cannot succeed now, we never will.

It's true that Democrats at several points in history had more than 60 Senators while a Democrat was in the White House. However, everyone knows that such an edge for either party is unlikely nowadays, because of the great political polarization in the country. When the Democrats had that huge edge, it took less than 34 Senators to filibuster nominations to death, and yet the GOP restrained itself. For more than 70% of the 20th century, the same party controlled the White House and the Senate, yet there was no hue and cry that the separation of powers was being violated. Welcome to the 21st century.