Skirmish Lines at The Apocalypse: Armageddon on the Potomac

SKIRMISH LINES AT THE APOCALYPSE:

Nuclear Option: Not a Democrat, but Trent Lott Coined the Term Nuclear Option.

Up and Down Vote: Deserved of All Nominees?  Except Hatch Used Plenty of Tricks Besides Well Ahead of Need  for Filibuster to Stop Clinton Nominees.

Point of Order: The moment Frist will ask the neutral Cheney to declare filibuster out of order in Senate.

The Weapons of Choice: Shots fired over  Constitution Article One Section Five and Senate Rule ThirtyOne.

PEACE TALKS POSSIBLE?  Reid and Frist Defrosting?
FROM AOL NEWS: In private talks with Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Senate's top Democrat has indicated a willingness to allow confirmation of two of President Bush's seven controversial appeals court nominees, but only as part of a broader compromise requiring Republicans to abandon threats to ban judicial filibusters, officials said Monday.

WHO NUKED WHO FIRST?  Republicans Prefer Constitutiional Option Now
FROM JEFFREY TOOBIN @ THE NEW YORKER: Changing the Senate’s rules on judicial filibustering was first addressed in 2003, during the successful Democratic filibuster against Miguel Estrada, whom Bush had nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Ted Stevens, a Republican Senate veteran from Alaska, was complaining in the cloakroom that the Democratic tactic should simply be declared out of order, and, soon enough, a group of Republican aides began to talk about changing the rules. It was understood at once that such a change would be explosive; Senator Trent Lott, the former Majority Leader, came up with “nuclear option,” and the term stuck.

DOWN WITH HATCH?  What's Up with His Game?
FROM KAGRO X @ THE NEXT HURRAH: Many Senate procedures may be used to deny a final vote, including the old "blue slips" that Senator Hatch eliminated from the Senatorial toolkit once his side was through using them, or the refusal of the Judiciary Committee to report nominations out for floor consideration, another tactic used extensively by Hatch when it was President Clinton doing the nominating. Those tactics certainly had the same effect: to deny a final vote.

DECIDING POINT?  A Point of Order
FROM JEFFREY TOOBIN @ THE NEW YORKER: . . In an extended debate over a judicial nominee a senator could raise a point of order that "any further debate is dilatory and not in order." If the Presiding Officer of the Senate- Vice- President Dick Cheney-sustained the point of order, Gold wrote, "he would set a new, binding Senate precedent allowing Senators to cut off debate." Democrats could challenge the Vice-President, but it takes only a majority vote to sustain a ruling by the Presiding Officer. The Republicans, with their majority, could both cut off debate on a nominee and establish a precedent that would apply to all future judicial nominations. (A legal challenge by Democrats would almost surely fail, because courts generally defer to the other branches of government on matters concerning their internal operations.) Henceforth, then, filibusters on judges would be impossible.

SENATE RULE XXXI

EXECUTIVE SESSION - PROCEEDINGS ON NOMINATIONS

1. When nominations shall be made by the President of the United States to the Senate, they shall, unless otherwise ordered, be referred to appropriate committees; and the final question on every nomination shall be, "Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination?" which question shall not be put on the same day on which the nomination is received, nor on the day on which it may be reported by a committee, unless by unanimous consent.

2. All business in the Senate shall be transacted in open session, unless the Senate as provided in rule XXI by a majority vote shall determine that a particular nomination, treaty, or other matter shall be considered in closed executive session, in which case all subsequent proceedings with respect to said nomination, treaty, or other matter shall be kept secret: Provided, That the injunction of secrecy as to the whole or any part of proceedings in closed executive session may be removed on motion adopted by a majority vote of the Senate in closed executive session: Provided further, That any Senator may make public his vote in closed executive session.

3. When a nomination is confirmed or rejected, any Senator voting in the majority may move for a reconsideration on the same day on which the vote was taken, or on either of the next two days of actual executive session of the Senate; but if a notification of the confirmation or rejection of a nomination shall have been sent to the President before the expiration of the time within which a motion to reconsider may be made, the motion to reconsider shall be accompanied by a motion to request the President to return such notification to the Senate. Any motion to reconsider the vote on a nomination may be laid on the table without prejudice to the nomination, and shall be a final disposition of such motion.

4. Nominations confirmed or rejected by the Senate shall not be returned by the Secretary to the President until the expiration of the time limited for making a motion to reconsider the same, or while a motion to reconsider is pending unless otherwise ordered by the Senate.

5. When the Senate shall adjourn or take a recess for more than thirty days, all motions to reconsider a vote upon a nomination which has been confirmed or rejected by the Senate, which shall be pending at the time of taking such adjournment or recess, shall fall; and the Secretary shall return all such nominations to the President as confirmed or rejected by the Senate, as the case may be.

6. Nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding session without being again made to the Senate by the President; and if the Senate shall adjourn or take a recess for more than thirty days, all nominations pending and not finally acted upon at the time of taking such adjournment or recess shall be returned by the Secretary to the President, and shall not again be considered unless they shall again be made to the Senate by the President.

7. (a) The Official Reporters shall be furnished with a list of nominations to office after the proceedings of the day on which they are received, and a like list of all confirmations and rejections.

(b) All nominations to office shall be prepared for the printer by the Official Reporter, and printed in the Congressional Record, after the proceedings of the day in which they are received, also nominations recalled, and confirmed.

(c) The Secretary shall furnish to the press, and to the public upon request, the names of nominees confirmed or rejected on the day on which a final vote shall be had, except when otherwise ordered by the Senate.

 

US CONSTITUTION ARTICLE ONE  Section 5 - Membership, Rules, Journals, Adjournment

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Comments

[Idyllopus]

I can think of a few choice people we should take to Iraq, put them in an older battered car, point it toward a notorious Iraqi checkpoint and give them the option of taking their chances or taking responsibility for the whole goddamned mess over there and here and see what happens. I'd say put them in uniform and hand them a gun and plunk 'em down in Iraq but their psychoses would have them shooting everyone in sight.

[G. D. Frogsdong]

I was upset with Reid when I heard he was offering a compromise on the rules regarding cloture, but then I read that he was just looking for the Republican rejection of the compromise in order to make the Reps look even worse. Before I heard the last part, I had already sent off an email to his office saying not to back down, not to compromise, that they give no quarter so neither should we. I'm glad I kept my tone open and not scolding.

Because I am still just wild about Harry.