Tuesday, April 26, 2005

L.A. Times says "Nuke The Filibuster"

Quotes from the LAT editorial "Nuke The Filibuster":


At the risk of seeming dull or unfashionable for not getting our own intellectual makeover, we still think judicial candidates nominated by a president deserve an up-or-down vote in the Senate. We hardly see eye to eye with the far right on social issues, and we oppose some of these judicial nominees, but we urge Republican leaders to press ahead with their threat to nuke the filibuster. The so-called nuclear option entails a finding by a straight majority that filibusters are inappropriate in judicial confirmation battles.
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Liberal interest groups determined to keep Bush nominees off the bench are in such a frenzy that they would have you believe that the Senate filibuster lies at the heart of all American freedoms, its lineage traceable to the Constitution, if not the Magna Carta. The filibuster, a parliamentary tactic allowing 41 senators to block a vote by extending debate on a measure indefinitely, is indeed venerable — it can be traced back two centuries. But it is merely the product of the Senate's own rule-making, altered over time; the measure was not part of the founding fathers' checks and balances to prevent a tyranny of the majority. The Senate's structure itself was part of that calculus.
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BUT IN THE EDITORIAL THE LAT SAYS: - quote -
But the Senate shouldn't stop with filibusters over judges. It should strive to nuke the filibuster for all legislative purposes. - end quote -

prying1 sez:
The Republicans are not calling for an end to all filibusters. Just to have the judicial nominees brought to the floor for a vote. It seems the LAT crossed the line to the Right (Conservative) side on this issue and kept on walking...

Hope they don't get lost wandering around like that...