ConfirmThem

By Paul Zummo Posted in Fillibuster — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Nathan beat me to the punch on linking to the York piece, so I will just add my own comments. I am not as confident as Nathan that this is a good strategy, though I am willing to concede the Senate Republicans might be better political strategists than yours truly. On the surface this may appear like a smart strategy, for after all the Republicans will need every vote possible to thwart a filibuster. But one has to question whether or not this is a futile gesture. As much as we question the allegiance of the so-called RINO's, I am not certain that they are the problem. If they are committed to joining the Democrats on a filibuster, then attempts to look like the GOP is playing nice are not going to sway them. Now, it might persuade a few moderate Democrats, but again I suspect that largely symbolic gestures such as this are not going to really convince those that have even remotely strong ideological motivations to move away from the obstructionist side.

More importantly, the Republicans have tried to play nice and have been burned before. George Bush practically let Ted Kennedy write the "No Child Left Behind Act," performed a large show of playing nice with the Senator, and look at the result. Moreover, the Democrats are absolutely committed to preventing President Bush from getting his nominees on the bench because they know the Courts are their last refuge. Until the Republicans get a 60-seat majority in the Senate - an unlikely occurence - the Democrats will continue to use the filibuster to block justices as long as it is a means at this disposal. The only sure-fire means of moving these names is to get down and dirty and make it a street fight. The article Andew just cited hardly instills one with confidence that the GOP is prepared to do just that, at least not yet. But it's time that Senate leadership removed the scales from their eyes and realized that playing nice is not going to get these distinguished individuals on the Courts any faster.