Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Republicans Undermine Senate, Blame Dems. Why do the republicans always win the spin game? The Republican majority in the senate, lead by potential Presidential nominee and panderer to the religious right, Bill Frist,  is threatening to change Senate rules that have been in place for generations, so that they can force the elevation of extremist judges onto the Appeals Courts and the Supreme Court.  This is bad enough, but because their rhetoric sounds so reasonable, "we just want an up or down vote," they have been able to cast the Democrats as obstructionist! Why is it that the Democratic party is unable to get the message out that the Republicans are changing the rules in the middle of the game and that even many moderate Republicans (including John McCain) think that is a very bad idea.   The People for the American Way have put together a  good summary of the most troubling nominees. It makes for frightening reading. Bush is not just pushing judicial conservatives, he is nominating judges who are on record in favor of a roll back of the entire federal oversight of the workplace, the environment, housing... His nominees would join Justice Thomas in reversing decisions from 1939 to 2005, and returning to a very constrained role for the national government. 5:01:13 PM    comment []