Anger Likely to Shift to Judiciary (Schiavo effect on filibustering Judges

[papau]

the judicial battle in the Senate may now boil over as top Republicans believe the Schiavo case proved a need for the confirmation of conservative judges, while Democrats feel it displayed why they have resisted 10 nominations so far

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess1apr01,1,5494835.story?coll=la-headlines-politics&ctrack=1&cset=true

NEWS ANALYSIS
Anger Likely to Shift to Judiciary
Conservative criticism of court rulings in the case indicates that the war by the GOP and Democrats over nominations is likely to escalate.
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

April 1, 2005

WASHINGTON — Conservative lawmakers' denunciations of the courts on Thursday signaled that Terri Schiavo's death was likely to escalate the war between the parties over President Bush's judicial nominations.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) — two leading advocates of congressional intervention in the case — criticized the state and federal courts involved following the death of the Florida woman.

"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," DeLay said. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today," he said, referring to the judges.

Santorum called repeated decisions by courts that blocked efforts to keep Schiavo alive "unconscionable."

Her death may also intensify conservatives' demands that Senate Republicans rewrite the chamber's rules to eliminate the Democratic filibusters that have blocked confirmation of some of Bush's federal judicial nominees. Critics call that the "nuclear option."

The Schiavo case "will animate and bring more emotion into the view held by many conservatives already that the courts are rewriting the Constitution to suit their own value system," said Gary Bauer, a social conservative activist. "The case provided an additional spur, if they needed any, to move ahead" with prohibiting filibusters for judicial nominees.

Yet Democrats and their allies believe Schiavo's death simultaneously weakens the GOP hand in that dispute. Democrats are preparing to link the Republican move against filibusters with Washington's last-minute effort to require additional judicial review in the Schiavo case — a step polls showed was opposed by a large majority of Americans.

Rewriting Senate rules "would be yet another demonstration of the fact that if Republicans don't like the rules, they are prepared to change the rules," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).<snip>

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. And this is what the GOP interest in Terri's plight was to begin with

To actually think they cared one way or the other about her is simply to be political naive.

[beam me up scottie]

2. Nothing happens by accident anymore, IMHO.

Pass me the tinfoil, I'm running low...

[tanyev]

3. Aren't an awful lot of judges Republican?

Nationwide--county, district, and federal levels? Aren't a lot of them "traditional" Republicans, not mouth-frothing Talibornagains? I wonder what they think about this attack on the judiciary.

[blindpig]

4. ...you do the Hokey-Pokey and you turn yourself around

and THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT.

ask ms bp, I've been muttering this for weeks.

[zara]

5. Schaivo furor might be a way to get moderate Repugs?...

...to back away from Nuclear option. With so many supporting the judges, and opposing the extremist culture of life, would moderate Repugs be more inclined to let the filibuster stand?

Or would fear of repug primaries post-Schaivo mean they so-called moderates are even less inclined to buck the hard right?