ConfirmThem

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

Via the Raw Story, we learn that Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers' reports that a spokesman for Bob Dole said his boss would support the nuclear option as "a last resort. And he assumes that Frist has the same opinion." Confirmthem previously discussed how the mainsteam media has quoted Dole selectively to make it seem like he opposes any rule change.

Senator Chambliss gave an interesting speech about filibusters on the Senate floor.

Senator Schumer is taken to task by the Committee for Justice, and deservedly so.

Hugh Hewitt has posted transcripts of his interviews with Ralph Neas and Nan Aron, who virtually guarantee filibusters of Supreme Court nominees such as Michael Luttig and Michael McConnell. Hugh summarizes here. UPDATE: Hugh also discusses his interviews with Aron and Neas in the Weekly Standard.

How Appealing provides access to video interviews in which Sen. Frist and Sen. Reid discuss the filibuster situation. How Appealing also mentions that there's a recently updated Congressional Research Service report floating around somewhere titled "Changing Senate Rules: The 'Constitutional' or 'Nuclear' Option." Howard Bashman argues that Republicans would be wrong to filibuster future Democratic nominees for the appellate courts, but nevertheless argues that Republicans should preserve the ability of Democrats to filibuster judicial nominees as much as they want (this is a very unappealing argument).

The National Ledger criticizes Senator Boxer's attempt to get newspaper editors on her side in the filibuster controversy.

And, Rush Limbaugh hits the nail on the head:

We're not talking about wiping out the filibuster on legislation or any other cherished act in the Senate. We're talking about righting a wrong that the Democrats have instituted here after 200 years of it having never been done: filibustering judicial nominations.

Rush is right. Until 2003, no judicial nominee having clear majority support in the Senate was ever defeated by filibuster.