Our ability to save the Supreme Court from President Bush could hang in the balance...
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is hatching a plan to allow President Bush to pack the courts with extremist judges. Frist wants to take away pro-choice Democrats’ most powerful line of defense against extremist judges: the filibuster.
Called the "nuclear option" because of the explosive consequences it would have in the Senate – Frist’s plan would allow anti-choice Republican leaders to change Senate rules to prevent the filibuster of judicial nominees.
During President Bush’s first term, senators used the filibuster carefully and selectively. The Senate confirmed more than 200 of President Bush’s judicial nominees to lifetime appointments, and used the filibuster to block only 10 of his most controversial nominees. Clearly, this is not a Senate rule that is being abused.
If you value balance and moderation on our courts, and believe the Senate should carefully review judges who are being considered for lifetime appointments, then you need to take action to stop Senator Frist today! .....
If the Republicans "go nuclear" it's going to blow up in their face just like when Newt Gingrich shut the federal government down. The American people will not support it for all the reasons above, as well as the fact that the Dems are treating Bush nominees better than what was dished out to Clinton nominees.
The surprising thing is, is that when the Republicans changed the rules to save Tom DeLay's butt, the Demo's shut down the Ethics Committee and forced them to retrench, and they (the Republicans) ended up looking really bad. They don't seem to have learned a thing.
It's still up in the air as to whether Frist has enough votes to go nuclear, since a handful of Republican senators are real squeamish about it.
It's a high risk move, but the stakes are 3-4 Supreme Court nominations plowed through and life as we know it undergoing extreme change. I think we'll be witnessing history next week.
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let the sun beat down upon my face -
And stars to fill my dreams