ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Associated Press reports as follows:

Democratic Leader Harry Reid declared an end Monday to compromise talks with Republican leaders over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees, saying their fate along with the future of long-standing filibuster rules will be settled in a showdown on the Senate floor.

Talks among centrist senators of both parties apparently continue, but the Democratic centrists are demanding that three nominees (Myers, Owen, and Saad) not be given up-or-down votes, and AP also reports this additional demand:

Individual Democrats would be free to decide for themselves what constituted an extreme case for future nominees, according to officials familiar with the proposal.

As we have previously pointed out here at confirmthem, many Democrats already consider three sitting Supreme Court Justices to be "extreme." Presumably, Saad, Owen, and Myers would set a precedent for what extremism means for circuit court nominees, which seems very silly considering their solid records. In any event, the Democratic parties to this proposed compromise would undoubtedly have an even broader definition of what Supreme Court nominees qualify as "extreme," seeing as how those nominees would not be subject to supervision by any higher court. Although I respect what Senator Nelson has tried to do, this does not seem like a compromise that can fly.

NOTE: The AP article cited in this post quotes Sen. Lugar: "I'm opposed to trying to eliminate filibusters simply because I think they protect minority rights, whether they're Republicans, Democrats or other people." However, here's a Lugar quote from earlier this month: "When push comes to shove, I would not take a stand against my party's view that we should have up or down votes on judges."