Man I am nervous about that plan to stop judicial fillibustering

[JohnKleeb]

So are the dems like gonna filibuster the bill to prevent filibustering? And wouldn't it fillibuster make a great name for a horse?

[Pirate Smile]

1. The Dems can't filibuster it. I think Repubs just decide to change the

rules of the Senate which takes a majority vote. It depends on how many Republicans would refuse to go along with it. Although I thought they had to do it at the beginning of the Senate session.

Showdown is coming soon.

"GOP Sets 1st Vote on Blocked Nominee

Republicans yesterday cleared the first of President Bush's blocked judicial nominees for a Senate vote after Easter, a move that Democrats say could lead to a filibuster confrontation that could shut down the chamber.

The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 8 along party lines to send the nomination of former Interior Department counsel William G. Myers to the floor.

-snip-
Democrats blocked his nomination in the last Congress and vow to do the same this year.

Republicans have threatened to change the Senate rules to stop Democrats from blocking judicial nominees, a move Democrats have dubbed the "nuclear option" because they say it would blow up Senate relations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44935-2005Mar17.html

[JohnKleeb]

2. I do declare that we are fucked

in regard to this.

[elshiva]

3. Well, we had a great showing for the Senate Call-in

this Wednesday. Some twenty thousand calls in support of the filibuster. Not shabby. We are not dead yet.
BTW: Sarbanes will do what he can, his secretary said he is a big supporter of this. I only got Mikulski's machine because the lines were so tied up!

[XanaDUer]

4. Me too.

Yes, it would make a great name.

[LeftyLizzie]

8. If I ever get a horse

I assure you, I'll name him fillibuster. Unfortunately, I don't do much riding, and will probably never get a horse. But now I think maybe I should, just so I can name him Fillibuster.

[TayTay]

5. This is how it works

In the Senate Chamber:

Senator Rethug brings the nomination of one of the Dirtbag 10 to the floor. A Democrat objects and begins the filibuster. A parliamentary objection follows that the gentlemen who is hogging the floor (filibustering) is out of order and that the rule that allows filibustering is unconstitutional. Cheney is in the chamber as Presiding Officer. He says, "The Chair agrees that the filibuster is unconstitutional. What does the Parliamentarian think?" The Parliamentarian, a Rethug appointee, says, "Ah, yup it is."

And boom, just like that, the filibuster on judicial nominees falls to the wayside.

Then the Dems, in retaliation for this Rethuggery, refuse to allow anything on the floor to happen without a full and clear debate and vote. Want to go to lunch and suspend the Senate for a while. Roll-call vote. Want to introduce a 200 page bill about some other Rethuggery action that The Idiot King wants done? Fine, no more suspending of the reading of the bill. (3 Times.) So, in giving up the filibuster, the Rethugs get back a broken Senate that doesn't do anything at all.

Democrats have vowed that if the filibuster rule is dropped then the Senate is effectively done for this legislative year. They will pass whatever minimally allows the government to keep working (so as to avoid the idiotic Gingrich charade of the '90's) but nothing else. No bills on Social Security destruction or such will ever get out of the Senate. That is the Democrats 'nuclear option.'

[whometense]

6. That's my understanding too,

and it sounds great to me.

[LeftyLizzie]

7. Sounds like fun!

Let's go! (I mean, really, I would hate for things to go like that and get that dirty, but I'd like to see us fight back, too.)