The Heretik

HIGH NOON AT THE NO COMPROMISE CORRAL

HIGH NOON AT THE NO COMPROMISE CORRAL
Now that the good Widow O’Connor has up and left her spread for the next homesteader in Supreme Flats, the Democrats would best remind themselves what a licking they took in that last draw when Calamity Owen and Disaster Brown took deeds to the town bench. If Bush and the Ill Gotten Gang get another two seats at the bar, you can say goodby to the future and a good chunk of the past as well.

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR JUST ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT
And the Fireworks Will Go Off Early This Fourth of July Weekend
HAT TIP: [Bitch Ph.d]

LIVE BLOG BELOW

Dear President Bush:
"This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor.

"It has been a great privilege, indeed, to have served as a member of the Court for 24 terms."I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the Court and its role under our constitutional structure."
Sincerely,
Sandra Day O'Connor

[CNN]

The White House has refused to comment on any possible nominees, or whether Bush would name a woman to succeed O'Connor. Her departure leaves Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the only other woman among the current justices.
Possible replacements include Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and federal courts of appeals judges J. Michael Luttig, John Roberts, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Michael McConnell, Emilio Garza and James Harvie Wilkinson III. Others mentioned are former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, lawyer Miguel Estrada and former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson, but Bush's pick could be a surprise choice not well known in legal circles.
[CNN]

LIVE BLOG: Arlen Specter says he is ready to go on nomination process as soon as possible.  Talked about consultation.  Tougher to confirm a swing vote?  Could produce more controversy. Don't want ot speculate.  Bush thinking?  Names?  No names, no word from Bush.  Death penalty and abortion?  Public?  People will be expecting everything. Polarized.  Everybody wants there own way.
Reproductive rights a focal of the hearings?  Weakened? Not prepared to say. Questions for the nominee.  Nuclear option?  Has the Senate learned something? Learned a lot.

BUSH 9:15 AM:  America is proud of her. Have our respect and good wishes,  1981, first woman. Discerning, conscientious, integrity, decency.  I am responsible for successor.  Serious and deliberate, potential nominees.  Faithful interpretation. Will consult.  Will select one we can be proud of,  fair treatment in Senate.  Would like process done before October session begins.  History of O'Connor. Grateful. Thank you.
KENNEDY 12:30 PM Praise for O'Connor, unanimously confirmed, consult with Senate, ensure liberty.  Consulting will ensure process is smooth. 
AKAKA: O'Connor an inspiration.  Love of land, individual rights, balance of will of majority, rights of minority. 
DODD: Well served by her.  O'connor the model Bush should seek in new nominee. Deciding voice, haven't always agreed with her, but reasonable. Advise and consent clause serves our nation.

STATEMENTS
FRIST: During her confirmation hearing, she emphasized that the court’s role was to interpret the law and not to make public policy.  Her record demonstrates that she has lived up to that commitment – respecting the rule of law and judiciously interpreting the Constitution. [MORE]

HOWARD DEAN: A President faces no more important decision in terms of protecting the rights and liberties of all Americans than nominating a Supreme Court Justice. President Bush has a constitutional responsibility to do what presidents before him have done -- seek the advice of senators from both parties before making a nomination, and choose a mainstream nominee who will protect our most important rights and freedoms.
Democrats hope this process can be one of consensus, rather than  confrontation, but that will be up to President Bush.[MORE]

WHAT THE BLOGS ARE SAYING: Early in the Day

I predict the death of Roe V. Wade.
Sandra Day O'Connor just announced her retirement.  And Rehnquist is dying.  There goes our 5-4 lead.
[BITCH PH.D]

"Under the Constitution I am responsible to nominate a successor to Justice O'Connor. I take this responsibility seriously. I will be deliberate and throrough in this process," Bush said.
I heard: Whoo-Hoo!!
Bush added he was seeking "potential nominees who have a high standard of legal ability, judgement and integrity and who will faithfully interpret the Constituional laws of this country."
I heard: "Faithfully!" Did you hear that Christian Right? I got "faith" in there!
[MS. MUSINGS]

AMANDA MARCOTTE: I have no doubt that Bush's nominee will make Scalia look moderate. I suggest to people that they start creating their coping strategies for when our hard won rights start getting taken away.Amanda has a lot more info at [PANDAGON] . . . . more links at
[SHAKESPEARE'S SISTER] . . .[TALK LEFT]  wants to draft Ed Prado.

ACTION:[ PFAW] has set up[SAVE OUR COURT]  Volunteer.  

ON SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR:  There goes a beautiful woman . . .

On the Republican Strategy;: Go far to the Right then seem to turn back to  center . ..
Poetic Leanings: No battle more important.

MORE TO FOLLOW

IT AIN'T OVER TIL IT'S OVER

 
IF YOU THOUGHT THE BATTLE WAS OVER . .  .
You May Be Wrong.  Ted Kennedy slams Janice Rogers Brown.  What we will witness is a battle over time compressed in a week. The battle is over whether this nation progresses forward. Or whether this country falls back into a period around 1850. 

The Heretik has previously noted that Janice Rogers Brown has a consistent judicial viewpoint.  A viewpoint that is firmly grounded in the middle of the Nineteenth Century.  Yesterday Senator Jeff Sessions made her sound like an American success story.  Janice Rogers Brown could not be against minorities and their interests.  She is after all a member of a minority or two herself.  In matters of justice, the Republicans have shown a remarkable ability to select various candidates for nominations that do not show particular long allegiance one would expect given their backgrounds. 

Janice Brown is part of a terrible trio that includes Clarence Thomas and Alberto Gonzales.  Rarely have those who have risen so high forgotten so quickly the foot that kept their people down in the past.

But in the matter of Janice Rogers Brown, Senator Ted Kennedy is concerned more about the future.  What  he doesn't want to see is another Republican trick where a clock runs backwards.

I strongly oppose the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown. Her record leaves no doubt that she would attempt to impose her own extreme views on people's everyday lives, instead of following the law. The courts are too important to allow such persons to become lifetime appointees as federal judges.
--snip--
Janice Rogers Brown has expressed hostility to some of the protections most important to the American people, including those that protect workers, civil rights, and the environment.

If we believe in these basic protections, it makes no sense to confirm a judge who would undermine them, and turn back the clock on many of our most basic rights. There can be no doubt that Janice Rogers Brown is a judicial activist, and that her views would radically change established law.
--snip--

Janice Rogers Brown's record shows a deep hostility to civil rights, to workers' rights, to consumer protection, and to a wide variety of governmental actions in many other areas -- the very issues that predominate in the D.C. Circuit. She is a singularly poor choice for the D.C. Circuit.

Some of Justice Brown's supporters suggest that she should be confirmed because of her compelling personal story. While all of us respect her ability to rise above difficult circumstances, we cannot confirm nominees to lifetime positions on the federal courts because of their backgrounds.
.....................
FROM STATEMENT RELEASED BY SENATOR TED KENNEDY
MORE HERE

 

The forces of compromise claimed victory recently. Priscilla Owen's confirmation was written off as a little more rain in the swamp of a circuit court that includes Texas and Lousiana.  The confirmation of Janice Rogers Brown, however, would be to the DC Circuit Court, the most influential and powerful of the lot.  Also a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.  Democrats will hardly look at Brown on the bench for life as any kind of victory.

backwards.

UPDATE 6:30 PM JUNE 7, 2005
IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME.
Janice Rogers Brown's Most Troubling  Legal Thought Concerns Locher v New York. What's troubling is that Janice Brown would like to overturn settled law. Her supporters say this is not so.  Her opinions expressed say otherwise.

Lochner v. New York stands with Dred Scott v. Sandford as one of the most reviled Supreme Court decisions in the nation’s history. Liberals and conservatives alike have denounced it. Robert Bork called it an abomination.  FDR accused the Lochner Court of mak[ing] our democracy impotent.

So what was this case that is too radical even for the likes of Judge Bork?  Lochner held that laws such as minimum wage, maximum hour, and child labor laws, as well as laws regarding peaceful labor activities and collective bargaining, were unconstitutional for violating the so-called “freedom to contract.”.  President Roosevelt blamed Lochner as one of the causes of the Great Depression, and he chastised the Court for striking down laws designed to jump-start the economy out of the Great Depression.
.....................

FROM THINK PROGRESS

The clock ticks.  Whether time indeed will run backwards has yet to be confirmed.  As does Janice Rogers Brown.

 

WHEN THE BIG ONE BLOWS

 
WHEN THE BIG ONE BLOWS
The Filibuster Battles thus Far Have Been Pops from a Peashooter Compared  to the Bomb to Blow Up When Rhenquist Retires. The Supreme Court’s power is embodied in its Chief Justice.  While some claim the Court is the weakest of the three branches of government, others see it as the branch that offers shade to liberty or oppression, as the branch that breaks in political winds.  Today blows more than most realize. Tomorrow could blow even worse.

AP May 30, 2005: ''The vacancy could come anytime after this Memorial Day weekend, we think," said Sean Rushton, director of the conservative Committee for Justice, which has close ties to the White House counsel's office.

--snip--

John O. McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, said he thinks Bush might have made up his mind.

''This White House -- I congratulate it on its ability to be secret," McGinnis said. ''It's entirely possible that Rehnquist has already communicated his intention to step down and the White House has a plan absolutely set."

McGinnis is most likely right.  That Rhenquist would communicate his intentions to the White House is not surprising given his strongly rooted Republican past in Arizona or his role in the judicial election coup of Florida 2000.  Democrats with memory of elephants rather than donkeys will remember Rhenquist was Nixon's hit man in the Watergate's Saturday Night Massacre.  What is surprising is that people continue to think Supreme Court Justices are any less partisan than the more rabid nutjobs in Congress and the White House. 

BOMBS WILL DROP, SMOKE WILL BLOW

UPDATE 2PM EST MAY 25, 2005:
OWEN CONFIRMED
On Near Straight Party Line Vote 56-43
Chaffee Votes with Dems Against; Byrd, Landrieu Vote with Republicans.
VOTE TALLY HERE

FRIST CONGRATULATES OWENS AND HIMSELF
Then Threatens Using the Option
Owen is in, Brown is next up for the thumbs up.  Democrats continue to fool themselves.  They have a thumb up as well.  It is not up in the air.

FRIST STATEMENT: Today’s vote marks a triumph of principle over politics and results over rhetoric.  Justice Owen is a distinguished, mainstream jurist who has exhibited extraordinary patience and courage in the face of vicious and continuous criticism.  This vote should mark a new beginning here in the Senate – a step forward for principle, fairness and the Constitution.  However, we cannot stop with this single step.  Though it remains my hope that the Constitutional option does not become necessary, we must give fair up or down votes to other previously blocked nominees.  It is the only way to close this miserable and unprecedented chapter in Senate history.

8:20 PM FRIST IS NOW SPEAKING BEFORE  GOPAC DINNER LIVE ON C SPAN
I AM GLAD I AM NOT EATING
He blasts Democrats and says Supreme Court Justice, two or three new ones will be named and will have impact for thirty or forty years.  No leader of principle can let such obstruction stand.  I will stand on principle  Simple principle.  Every judicial nominee deserves SURPRISE an up or down vote.

We exposed the filibuster  for what it is.  Tyranny by the minority.  Seven Republicans who compromised?  Falls short of the great principle.  Up or down vote.  Up or down vote.  Owen waited for years for SURPISE up or down vote. Victim of assassination.  She is home in Texas, a federal judge. Extraordinary circumstances. Will Reid, Durbin, Schumer look in Eight Ball?  He has an Eight ball in his hands.  Making jokes.  Getting laughs.  Most unbelievable.  We will not hesitate to use constitutional option.

 

BUSH APPLAUDS HIMSELF AND OWEN

I applaud the Senate for voting to confirm Justice Priscilla Owen.  She has served with distinction on the Supreme Court of Texas, has demonstrated that she strictly interprets the law, and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  I urge the Senate to build on this progress and provide my judicial nominees the up or down votes they deserve. >>> FROM WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING

REID YESTERDAY DECLARED VICTORY
Today These Words Ring Hollow

REID: We are here today not to declare victory for Democrats but to declare victory for our Constitution and our country.      

This week threatened to be one that would undermine our democratic traditions. But instead of demonstrating how fragile our basic rules are, it ended up showing the depth of Americans' commitment to liberty and limited government.

Our Republic stands strong. Our Constitution is solid. Our flag flies over a nation that has reaffirmed its faith in freedom.

When blind justice – whose statue guards our Supreme Court – weighs our efforts today, she can know that the defenders of the Constitution have won out over those who would corrupt our American values to advance their own extreme ends. >>> MORE

Somebody needs to tell Reid that with Owen on the bench for life, the Republicans have advanced their extreme ends.  But the Republicans did not do it alone.  They had help from the compromising Democrats.  They had yet more help from Democrats who talked tough talk for months and when times got tough walked away. And walked away with what?  Victory?  If this is victory, I shudder to think what defeat will look like.

MORE BOMBS WILL DROP
More smoke will blow.  It doesn't seem likely that Bush will honor the last clause of the infamous compromise. The White House will seek no advice, only demand consent when a Supreme Court nominee goes before the Senate for confirmation.

WASHINGTON POST: With the Senate filibuster dispute behind it, the White House is bracing for a high-stakes battle to fill a seat on the Supreme Court that many expect to come open next month and that could help shape the remainder of President Bush's second term.

For all the appeals for bipartisan harmony, Bush is unlikely to nominate a consensus justice, and Democrats are unlikely to find his choice acceptable, current and former White House officials said. If Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who is ailing, retires at the end of the term as much of Washington expects, the officials said Bush is prepared to name a committed conservative regardless of Democratic opposition.

EARLIER TODAY:

BOMBS START DROPPING TODAY
And So Does Reality for Democrats and Republicans
Priscilla Owen gets her up or down vote today.  Big Up for Republicans. Low Down Sign of What’s Ahead for Democrats. Frist still warns he may use the nuclear option if he gets a filibuster on Myers.  The Democrats are still declaring victory.  Owen and even worse Brown will be a continuing disaster if they get confirmed.

The Democrats need to pull their heads out of their um sand.  Oh, but the Senate has been saved.  Save me from such saviors who talked so tough so long and now give up on Brown and Owen and Pryor.  Janice Brown would bomb the Constitution back into the Stone Age. 

The Democrats are looking to win a big battle down the road, while the insurgent Republicans are getting what they want.  This is a guerrilla war with only one side seeing rules to be respected.

I see smoke not just on the horizon.  It will be considerably closer than that.

MAY 25, 2005

THE ACTUAL DOCUMENT: THE COMPROMISING POSITION FOR ALL

JOHN PODESTA: A VICTORY OF SORTS
This victory comes at a heavy price: the near-certain confirmation of at least three nominees whose contempt for constitutional liberties and disregard of precedent make them manifestly unworthy of judicial office.

NO RED RETREAT, NO SURRENDER
WAPO:  "This is a truce, not a treaty," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). He criticized the agreement and predicted the GOP majority soon will be back on the verge of voting to bar filibusters of judicial nominees.

WHAT DOES W THINK?
LA TIMES: The fate of the agreement defusing the Capitol Hill confrontation over judicial nominations now rests as much in the hands of President Bush as the senators who crafted it.

THE ROAD TO NOWHERE?
WAPO: Compromise means the Senate is not following the White House script. And where that leads is anyone's guess.

ONE THING IS CERTAIN IN ALL THIS.  If the Democrats allow Brown, Owen, and Pryor through without a fight, we will know what they have been smoking all along: the losing peace pipe of appeasement.  If they let these judges through, they will have inhaled deeply.  Nobody should then be surprised when they blow so much smoke up our butts.

BODIES BLEEDING EVERYWHERE

BODIES EVERYWHERE BLEEDING
And the Future Vaporized as Survivors on Both Sides Declare Victory
I cringed during the Senate Post Mortem on this nuclear constitutional crybaby fiasco so you didn't have to.  The maimed who looked in the Senate  C Span cameras rather than into a mirror all spoke with a stunning mix of  the self: self congratulation, self loathing, and self deception.

Harry Reid handed it over (or allowed it.)  Not sure which of those is worse.  Frist frosted his future with the Always Right Religionists.  Hard to shed a tear.  Everyone cheered the Senate and this good agreement, then immediately progressed to saying the whole fiasco was the other side’s fault.  Except for Durbin who said his side had been admonished and properly so.

Losers lay everywhere bleeding out, yet thinking they will walk again.  Lazarus has left the building.  Meet him somewhere else.  I think he said Munich.

Democrats declare victory when Brown and Owen will rule where it matters: on the bench.

The reality is the Republican goal all along has been to get Brown and Owen through to be Circuit Court judges.  That goal has been accomplished.

If you step back and look at the Nuclear Option of eliminating the filibuster as a tactic  rather than as the goal all along, then the Republicans have won and gotten what they wanted.

On the Democratic side is only a truce with the chance to fight again.

The hard Right is unsatisfied.  Only a greater conflagration with the smell of bodies burning would satisfy them.  On the Left much navel gazing  leaves us with Janice Rogers Brown on the bench, with Priscilla Owens on the bench to rule for life or more likely for death or for property.  Harry Reid says he can finally sleep. Others will not sleep so easily.  Nuclear winter has been averted.  We live now After the Fall.

MAY 24, 2005

LOS ANGELES TIMES: CENTER FORMS TO OUTFLANK LEFT, RIGHT

But the compromise — a middle ground between Republicans who want to ban judicial filibusters and Democrats who want to retain them — includes two big loopholes that could come back to haunt the Senate: Democrats reserved the right to filibuster future judicial nominations in "extraordinary circumstances." Republicans kept the power to revisit the nuclear option if they believe Democrats are filibustering in circumstances that do not reach that standard.

WASHINGTON POST ANALYSIS: PACT UNLIKELY TO AVERT BATTLE

The deal brings mixed results for President Bush. It means that at least three of the nominees who have been blocked for years will make it to the appellate courts, while at least two will not. Beyond that, without a total ban on judicial filibusters, as the nuclear option would have guaranteed, the president will not have such a free hand in selecting a Supreme Court nominee. He also will be under pressure from the moderates to work more cooperatively with the Senate on judicial nominations or face rebellion from at least some of them.

TALK LEFT: SELL OUT PART TWO

All this compromise did was pass the buck to another day, while allowing three extremist judges to be elevated to lifetime appointments on federal appeals courts.

THE NEXT HURRAH: THE CENTER HOLDS, CHALLENGES FOR BUSH

THE DECEMBRIST: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE "TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE" NUKE DEAL

And yet, here we are tonight, and the deal is done. And I'll live with it. First, no one cares whether I think it's "totally unacceptable" or not. (That's apart from the more metaphysical question of who cares what I think about anything.) For that matter, who cares whether Barbara Boxer or even Harry Reid considers it "totally unacceptable"? It's the deal. It's how these 14 Senators have decided to cast their votes, and if the Dems had refused to agree to it, we'd be heading to a vote tomorrow in which Frist would probably win. Second, I think the language in the agreement about how every Senator will follow his or her "own discretion and judgment in determining whether [extraordinary] circumstances exist" in a vague way takes care of my concern.

MAY 23, 2005

NY TIMES EARLY MOP UP EDITION: MODEST VICTORY FOR BUSH

CROOKS AND LIARS VIDEO: FRIST STATEMENT

TALK LEFT: Sell-Out Deal Made: - Bush's Judges In

CROOKS AND LIARS: VICTORY for Democrats

THE NEXT HURRAH: It's Up to Us to Define Victory

SWING STATE: UPDATES

REPUBLICANS WIN FILIBUSTER COMPROMISE

REPUBLICANS WIN COMPROMISE
What Have Democrats Not Given Away?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement after days of talks to avert a showdown Tuesday over President Bush's judicial nominees, Sen. John McCain announced Monday evening.

8:10 PM REID IS NOW SAYING WE ARE MOVING FORWARD
Michigan Judges Will Be Approved. Supreme Court?  Reid hopes for advise and consent, consultation.  Senate should be as it was.. Important night for Senate.  Bush forced to consult with Senate.  Will continue to filibuster on Myers.

8:15 PM FRIST: UP AND DOWN VOTE, UP AND DOWN VOTE.
Welcome to the Machine.  Frist is pleased.  Owen after four years, two weeks, one day,  Pryor, Up and Down vote.  Janice Rogers Brown will get up or down vote.
Republicans are up and the left is down.  Down and out.

8:19 PM Frist says Saad and Myers deserve up and down vote.  Now he is bashing the Dems on being wrong to block them. 

8:21 Supreme Court.  Frist is first to bring it up.  Up and down vote.  No need for constitutional option.  No weapons pulled off table by Repubs.  We would have won. Mutual trust and good will. Frist will monitor agreement.  Hall monitor effect.  I haven't wanted to do this. Bad faith, behavior on other side made me do it.

8:25 PM Frist: This will be spun as victory by fourteen, I see it as victory by Senate. Gratified that Democrat leader looks to move forward. 

8:27 Reid: Says we are moving forward.  Praises Byrd, Warner. The Heretik  can't stand it.  Reid is saying it is a victory for the people of the United States. 

Reid, buddy, you just saw your heros  hand over the store.  Are you kidding me?
He just tore up the paper with the names of Repubs to be viewed.  Says we saved time.  List of agenda. 

Reid just said it's over with and he feels so good. He will sleep well.  I won't. 

But there will be filibusters in the future.  Mister Smith can still come to Washington.  Praising Frist now.  Many trips to his office, his few trips to mine.
THAT PRETTY MUCH SAYS IT RIGHT THERE, HARRY.  UNBELIEVABLE.

Now it is a Warner love fest.  Thanks to the other thirteen compromisers. 


8:34 PM  McConnell is now piling on. Rehash of how Senate has deteriorated. Praise for Frist.  The group of fourteen led by McCain and Warner have allowed us to step back from the brink.  All options are still on the table.  The fourteen don't expect this to happen.  We will deal with noms the way we always did.  I wouldn't have done it this way.  Up and down votes for the terrible threesome.

THE KOOL AID HAS BEEN DRUNK.

Durbin is recognized. Ready to quote Churchill about avoid bullet being shot.  Gets interrupted to turn back to Repubs.  Dems got shot in the head anyway.

Durbin wants to continue with good news of agreement.

Warner speaks, Schumer wants to speak.  The mop up begins.  The toilet has overflown and the Senate now stinks.

Durbin gets his Churchill line in. Principle wins out.  BUT THE DEMS LOST ON ALL THREE OF THE JUDGES THEY WANTED TO BLOCK. I don't get it.

I am picking up the wafting of Munich.   The  Senate  has been saved . We have been admonished and I think appropriately so.  Actual words out of Durbin's mouth.

WARNER: Total humility. Our wonderful Senate can continue its long and distinguished service.

SCHUMER:  Armageddon has been avoided. We stepped up to the precipice and didn't fall in.   The  agreement serves this body well. 

What about all the people who are going to be screwed by Brown and Owen, Charlie?

8:52 PM MORE SCHUMER: But Bush will now consult.  Feared loss of checks and balances. We must all make efforts to avoid the poison of too much partisanship.  Hope, hope, hope.  A better Republic.  This could become an historic night with this agreement.

8:52:30 I am floating on a Kool Aid Sea with that strange sinking feeling.  No, that is just my gut.  A sinking feeling in my gut.

8:55 PM I AM NOW GOING TO EAT DINNER AND TRY TO KEEP IT DOWN.

9:05 I never left.  plans for adjourning  the Senate Session.  Discussion of tomorrows business.  Life goes on.  Blah, blah.  Owen Fest starts tomorrow.  Yesteryear will follow for a long time after that.


NY TIMES: Centrists from both parties reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush's stalled judicial nominees and the Senate's own filibuster rules, officials from both parties said.

These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would clear the way for yes or no votes on some of Bush's nominees, but make no guarantee.

Under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."

For their part, Republicans agreed not to support an attempt to strip Democrats of their right to block votes.

COMPOMISE?
The Republicans will get every judge they wanted in most: Owens, Brown.  Welcome to the Nineteenth Century America!

REUTERS:"We've got a deal," Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson told reporters. Senators plan to announce details at a news conference shortly.

The deal is aimed at averting a historic vote on whether to strip the minority Democrats of their ability to use a procedural tactic known as a filibuster to block Bush's candidates for federal courts.

NOW WE HAVE A  HISTORIC NON VOTE ON THE NUCLEAR OPTION!
Owens and Brown will pass through the Senate to seats as judges. Anyone subject to their Nineteenth Century judicial wisdom is unlikely to feel like a winner.

TALK LEFT: Sell-Out Deal Made: - Bush's Judges In

CROOKS AND LIARS: VICTORY for Democrats

THE NEXT HURRAH: It's Up to Us to Define Victory

SWING STATE: UPDATES

Death of a Thousand Pricks

DEATH OF A THOUSAND PRICKS
Or Is It the Possible Prick of Fiftyone Republican Votes on the Nuclear Option?
Democrats are still talking of a “compromise” on the nuclear option when that compromise is nothing but a loser for everything the Dems have fought for so far.  Under the compromise, seven out of ten judges would be confirmed, including the Nineteenth century legal scholars Owen and Brown.  For this giveaway, the Democrats would get to filibuster in extreme circumstances.  Continue to feel the prick of conscience, Democrats!  The circumstances are extreme enough now.

Passed along from Bark Bark Woof Woof, Eleanor!  Clift reminds us of what more the Republicans seek: Stripping Senate Democrats of their right to filibuster judicial nominees is a prelude to a broader assault on the judiciary known as “court stripping.” Alabama Republican Richard Shelby last year introduced The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 to acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law and threaten judges with impeachment should they uphold separation of church and state.

MORE ON EXTREME CONSEQUENCES OF GIVING IN NOW. It’s about tipping the balance in the Circuit Courts, the places where cases that don’t make the Supreme Court end.  Talk Left points the way to that radical leftist rag The Wall Street Journal on the consequences: Janice Rogers Brown, for instance, has made scathing assessments about the reach of the federal government -- and she is nominated to the appellate court that handles the majority of appeals of government-agency rulings.

William Myers, who has advocated against environmental groups, is in line to join the appellate court that sorts through land-use battles.

William Pryor, who called a section of the Voting Rights Act "an expensive burden that has far outlived its usefulness" -- may be headed for an appellate court with jurisdiction over parts of the old Confederacy.

The Democrats need to continue to feel the tiny prick of conscience that got them this far in the game.  The last second of a tie game is not the time to allow the other team to score the winning shot.
 
 

MORE BACKGROUND AND COMMENTARY

If you go anywhere for insight, check out The Next Hurrah.  These guys ARE the Nightline of the Nuclear Option.  Here' s what Kagro X and his buds have brought to the table, a feast before the nuclear famine.

By Kagro X

Nuclear Option Proliferation
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part II
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part III
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part IV
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part V
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VI
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VII
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VIII
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part IX
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part X
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XI
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XII
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XIII
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XIV
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XV
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XVI
Notes on the Nuclear Option -- Part XVII

Footnotes on the Nuclear Option
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part II
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part III
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part IV
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part V
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VI
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VII
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part VIII
Footnotes on the Nuclear Option -- Part IX

 

By DHinMI

What’s In Filibusted Nominee Henry Saad’s FBI File?
Is Norquist Conceding Defeat on Social Security and the Nuclear Option?
When You Don’t Have the Vote, You Talk. When You Have the Vote, You Vote.
Bush Trots Out Zellout Democrat To Endorse Extremist Judicial Candidate
Filibusted Judge’s Wife Was a Swift Boats Contributor
Bush Nominee’s Father Led Last Filibuster of Supreme Court Nominee
Say Goodbye to “The Nuclear Option?”
Santorum Nukes Frist
Foxman, Frist and Byrd
The Filibuster and Southern Realignment
Bush and C. Boyden Gray Pass Up Opportunity to Defend DeLay 

By DemFromCT

Nuclear Hardball
Voting on the Nuclear Option: 3-D Chess
Head-Counting the Nuclear Option Vote
On Bolton, the Nuclear Option, and the Perception of Power--Part III
On Bolton, the Nuclear Option, and the Perception of Power--Part II
On Bolton, the Nuclear Option, and the Perception of Power--Part I

By emptywheel

Back to Specter: A Moderate Ultimatum?
Time to Review Arlen Specter’s Deal With the Devil

By RonK, Seattle

The Failsafe Option
Sub-Nuclear Options
The Knights Who’ll Say Nay

 

FRIST: REPUBLICANS FILE FOR CLOTURE

FRIST OPENING STATEMENT May 18,2005

REID OPENING STATEMENT May 18,2005

TOP TEN LIES ABOUT THE FILIBUSTER MEDIA MATTERS

CASE AGAINST PRISCILLA OWEN PFAW

CASE AGAINST JANICE ROGERS BROWN PFAW

GOING NUCLEAR CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS


THE DECEMBRIST
Mark Schmitt has many posts worth checking on his sidebar.

MELTDOWN DAZE

UPDATE 2PM EST MAY 20, 2005

ARE THE DEMOCRATS MELTING IN THE HEAT?
The "Compromise" Discussed Is More Capitulation.  Lieberman was bragging about his input here.  The Heretik is firmly against the output.  This compromise is in name only.

CNN:A bid to end the Senate standoff over President Bush's judicial picks would let five nominees advance to a final vote while preserving the right of a minority of senators to block two others.

A draft of the deal, which CNN obtained Thursday, would allow confirmation votes on five of the seven nominees Democrats have blocked -- including Priscilla Owen, whose nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals faces debate in the Senate this week.

MELTDOWN DAZE
I Am Afraid to Turn on C Span Today for What I Might Yet See and Hear.
Frist on Wednesday in unscripted remarks out of his mind talks about Democrats assassinating judicial nominee.  Yesterday Santorum shaking out of his own tree in a voice aquiver with an ignorance of history assaults all decency with making the Democrats with Adolf Hilter.

Makes you wonder what the Republicans would really say when they can shut down debate and the filibuster.  I have had close to enough.  The Democrats have had close to enough.  This nation has had close to enough. 

We have had more than enough. We have had too much.  If you want to know why we need the filibuster, Rick Santorum made the best argument for it: the non hominem attack.  If you want to know why we need the filibuster, look what the senate would be left to, men who are not men but shadows who would plunge this nation in a sad and deeper sea of darkness where reason drowns and passion prevails.  Ignorant passion assaults the body politic daily.

Santorum MUST resign.  His Hitler tirade should be his political epitaph.  You can e mail him here to tell him what he can do.  I was going to continue on to the part of this post where I call the winner and loser of the day.  We are all losers.  We are all losers if we allow this to continue.  Some say cynics have no hope.

Cynics have a hope, the hope that those with dreams will quit and cynics will win on an empty field, political or otherwise. I will not quit.  You must not quit either. We must win a battle of our choosing, one fought not in the gutter gloomy.  Who is with me?  Who are we, if we are not for each other?  Heat must give way to light.

Our differences are great.  What we have in common is greater still.

 

IT'S ONLY WORDS
Max Baucus (D-Montana) quoted The Hollow Men by T.S. Elliot yesterday.  I love Elliot’s words. This is the way the world ends, not with a bang  but a whimper. Elliot’s power over words evoke admiration. People forget he was a rabid anti-Semite.  We look away from the full picture of men at our peril.  Our differences are great.  What we have in common is greater still.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR POLITICAL EPITAPH
By Rick Santorum
SANTORUM (RAW STORY): Remarkable. remarkable hubris. I mean, imagine, the rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judges. broken by the other side two years ago, and the audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule. It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city? It's mine." This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster. It was an understanding and agreement, and it has been abused. In a sense, what we see here on the floor of the United States.

MORE AT CROOKS AND LIARS:

VIDEO: SANTORUM CROOKS AND LIARS WINDOWS MEDIA FILE
VIDEO: SANTORUM CROOKS AND LIARS QUICKTIME FILE

DESOLATION ROAD: Armageddon on the Potomac

 
DESOLATION ROAD
The Heretik Notes It Was a Dreary Scene in the Senate Yesterday Right from Frist’s Frightening Get Up and Go to Hell Democrats Opening Statement
Any Republican who thinks Frist has a serious chance of becoming president might want to tell Doctor Doom he needs to work on his graveside manner.

Frist is no Doctor Pepper.  Schumer crushed him like a can at the recycling center. And speaking of recycling center, there is such a thing as sticking too much to the talking points. UNPRECEDENTED.  UP AND DOWN VOTE.  Rinse and Repeat on the Brainwashing.  The Heretik heard an unprecedented repetition of the words up and down yesterday.  If the Republicans think that will get them the ultimate up, they could be going down.  No imagination whatsoever.

Parents should take children off the street when the mortician Frist drives the Doom Mobile hearse down the street.  His assault on decency in saying the Dems are trying to assassinate judges was way over the top, even for the Mister Clean down and dirty doctor.



YESTERDAY’S WINNER: Charles Schumer.
YESTERDAY’S LOSER: Doctor Doom “Medical Bill” Frist

NOW FOR SOME LINKS
SO YOU CAN SEE HOW THIS SAD SAUSAGE IN THE SENATE IS GETTING MADE:

FRIST OPENING STATEMENT May 18,2005

REID OPENING STATEMENT May 18,2005

TOP TEN LIES ABOUT THE FILIBUSTER MEDIA MATTERS

CASE AGAINST PRISCILLA OWEN PFAW

CASE AGAINST JANICE ROGERS BROWN PFAW

GOING NUCLEAR CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS

KAGRO X: NOTES ON THE NUCLEAR OPTION  NEXT HURRAH

THE DECEMBRIST
Mark Schmitt has many posts worth checking on his sidebar.

POLITICAL BEDTIMES STORIES
These Could Keep You Up at Night

HULK GETS NUKED: Six-term Sen. Ted Stevens is among the Senate's gruffest members on his best days, but on Feb. 26, 2003, he was downright angry. As Democrats blocked yet another one of President Bush's judicial nominees, he sat in a wooden chair in the Republican cloakroom and told a group of colleagues and aides, "We can put an end to this now!"

THE KILLER INSTINCT: The Republican leader, Bill Frist (Tenn.), was asked why he, the head of the anti-filibuster movement, had voted to uphold the filibuster of a judge in 2000. Frist at first stammered -- "Mr. President, the, in response, the Paez nomination, we'll come back and discuss it" -- and then settled on an answer: "It's not the cloture votes, per se," he said, using the term for filibuster-breaking votes. "It's the partisan leadership-led use of cloture to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees."

BIG SURPRISE! At the White House, the official line on the fight over ending filibusters of judicial nominees is that it is a matter for the Senate to decide.

But behind the scenes, the White House, directly and through its allies, is playing an active role in keeping up the pressure on the Senate to assure that President Bush's nominees have up-or-down confirmation votes, Republicans involved in the effort said.

BOMBMAKING 101
Washington, D.C.: I am a novice to Senate rules and am still trying to figure out the mechanical steps of defeating the filibuster rule. Two questions: (1) Can you walk us through an expected chain of events; and (2) why can't Democrats filibuster a vote to end the filibuster?

Charles Babington: Good questions. It probably would go like this: At some point in the debate over a judge, Majority Leader Frist (or his designee) would seek a ruling from the chair that further debate is pointless and therefore out of order. The presiding officer (a Republican) would rule in Frist's favor. Democrats would appeal the chair's ruling. A Republican would immediately move to "table" (or kill) the Democrats' appeal. A tabling motion is not debatable. That's the key. Therefore a simple majority vote -- with VP Cheney breaking a 50-50 tie if needed-- would uphold the chair's ruling. From that point on, a new "precedent" would be in place effectively banning filibusters of appellate court nominees.

LIES: As we wait on the sidelines for the seemingly inevitable chain reaction to take place on the senate floor, it is worth observing and considering the fact that every Republican senator certainly knows that the proposition they're about to attest to is quite simply a lie.