ConfirmThem

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

The Washington Post has an editorial about the filibuster situation. Here's part of it:

[President Bush] could pick nominees who are qualified and to his ideological liking and yet immune to plausible partisan challenge; even in a highly charged atmosphere, many such people exist. If he showed this kind of leadership, his demand for up-or-down votes would carry far more weight.

This is not Bush's fault. The filibuster is now being used purposely to screen nominees for ideology. The Post previously acknowledged in 2003 what it now denies:

Abraham Lincoln once said, "We cannot ask a man what he will do [on the court], and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it." Today's very different standards are remarkable and disturbing. Not only is declaring one's positions on matters of judicial controversy no longer a matter of opprobrium, 44 senators now positively demand it.

The unavoidable question is whether a minority of Senators should be allowed to demand nominees having particular positions, ideologies, or philosophies. Here's a column by Kevin McCullough answering this question in the negative.