Monday, May 23, 2005

Marshall - Senate rule change will not be decided in court TalkLeft: "Ken Salazar. Traitor. Democrats will remember this when he runs for re-election. He's been in the Senate a few months - most of his moves have been Republican-light. Another Joe Lieberman. He'll probably go the way of Ben Nighthorse Campbell in a few years." Ouch. Josh Marshall: "The overwhelming majority of readers who wrote in -- ranging from political junkies to con law profs (many of whom also seem to be political junkies) -- agree with what I've said earlier: absolutely no way this ever gets into court." The Moderate Voice: "Unless there's a surprise, Senate moderates appear not to have succeeded and the countdown has begun on the 'nuclear option' to ban the use of filibusters on judicial nominees - with Senator Bill Frist even dramatizing the situation by bringing in bed cots." Blogs for Bush: "Frist floor statement on judicial nominations." TalkLeft: "Blog coverage will include links to Senators' speeches as soon as we can get them, and in some cases, full transcripts. And anything else we learn that we think readers will be interested in." Jeralyn Merritt writes, on the 5280 Weblog, "Sen. Ken Salazar has been a chief spokesman for a compromise, offering to allow an up-or-down-vote on all of President Bush's nominees in exchange for the Republicans agreeing to keep the right to filibuster alive for the duration of the 109th Congress. Sen. Wayne Allard, who serves as Deputy Whip for the Republicans, has been lobbying Republicans to tow the party line." Category: 2004 Presidential Transition 6:04:37 PM

Nuclear Option Political Wire: "The Wall Street Journal best explains why people should care: 'Bush's judicial nominees would tip the balance in some evenly split appellate courts.' The impact on civil rights and environmental policies could be profound." Colorado Luis: "Basically, the twelve senators would sign a pact agreeing to vote as a bloc on various nominations and on the nuclear option. The Republicans would agree to vote against the nuclear option and the Dems would agree to support some number of nominees. And this is really the key: There could be a compromise and you wouldn't know it because it would look based on the vote that one side or the other had won completely. That's because it is Bill Frist, who obviously is not part of the compromise negotiations, who gets to decide what order to put up the nominees. And he put two of the worst of the worst -- Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown -- to be voted on first." Category: 2004 Presidential Transition 7:18:33 AM

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