When it was President Bush in 2005 who was nominating Federal judges and Democrats threatened to filibuster, Senate Republicans went on an all out assault of the practice while advocating for a fair “up or down vote”. Here are some highlights from that time that I was able to put together during lunch today:
Will anyone be surprised if Minority Leader McConnell changes his tune about filibusters now that a Democratic President is the one doing the nominating?
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
O.K. If Republicans now threaten a fillibuster they’re hypocrites. But, if Democrats now denounce a filibuster, they’re also hypocrites.
We’re all part of the same hypocrisy Senator. [Michael Corleone, The Godfather, II]
I’d be rather surprised if the GOP decides to officially filibuster her. They may threaten, saber rattle, etc. but aren’t likely to filibuster. She’ll be used as an example of judicial activism and the right will get a lot of mileage out of it (and rightly so, I believe) but I don’t believe they’ll try to sink a confirmation vote on her with filibuster.
The sable rattling is what I’m pointing out though. How can Mitch McConnell even threaten it when three years ago he was deriding filibusters as he did?
“Regardless of party, any Presidents judicial nominees, after a full debate, deserve a simple up or down vote”
There will be no filibuster, period. The Republicans are terrified of being seen as opposed to a: 1) Latina, 2) a woman. They may ask a few tough questions, but unless a major scandal is uncovered, Sotomayor is a shoo-in.
They also don’t have the votes.
They can filibuster in committee, but this would require unanimity, and with Sen. Lindsay Graham on the Judiciary Committee I doubt they can muster the spine to do it.
I may be mistaken, but you can’t filibuster in committee as by the rules of the Senate, it takes place on the floor of the Senate, not in committee.
The judiciary committee could certainly vote against the nomination of a judicial appointment, and halt the progress of the appointment to the Senate floor, but again that comes down to votes which Republicans don’t have.
For a justice to leave committee, there has to be a majority vote that includes one vote from the minority party. If the GOP senators unanimously refuse to vote for the nominee, she will not go forward. It is the committee equivalent of a filibuster.
In the past, Sen. Specter was the one vote Dems could always count on to move nominees to the floor. Now the weak link in Lindsay Graham.
Yes, they are hypocrites. The Democrats are hypocrites for arguing for filibuster before and complaining now. Do we see a pattern?
Hypocrisy would be if the Dems had backed off on the filibuster on Bush nominees and then the GOP used it against Sotomayor. Just because they decried it then doesn’t mean they can’t use that procedure today.
Similarly, the Dems referred to approving justices by reconciliation as the “nuclear option,” but are now considering the same procedure for passing healthcare reform with a simple majority.
By resisting the rule change back then, the Dems kept the filibuster in play for judicial nominees. Now that the GOP wants to give the Dems a taste of their own medicine, it’s hypocrisy? No, it’s payback.
And it won’t happen anyway because GOP Senators are a bunch of Neville Chamberlains who think you Dems will respect them more if they play nice. :-)