Filibusters

There's nothing worse than a whiny Republican. Particularly when they're whining about something they once had an opportunity to change but failed to do so. Although the "hard work" whining from the President during the debates was bad; nothing beats how bad the Republicans are whining now about judicial filibusters.

In 1995, Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and Tom Harkin proposed a change to the Senate rules (link, you will need to type: S.AMDT.1 and it will take you right to it. To see the whole Amendment, click the link for S422 and then the link for the Amendment) gradually reducing the number of votes needed to invoke cloture to a majority in the Senate rules. This made good sense to many Democrats in 1995. Why? Because the Republicans for the first time in 10 years had a majority but a tenuous one. If the Democrats could change the rules while they were the minority and if President Clinton could drag a couple extra seats towards the Democrats, they'd have a change in the rules they could use when the Republicans attempted filibusters as they had for the past ten years. The filibuster of Clinton appointees Walt Dellinger and Sam Brown were still fresh in the Democrats' minds and they had every reason to believe that this current Republican majority in the Senate wouldn't last with Clinton as President.

The Republicans wouldn't bite. Even many Democrats were dubious about this change. So, the Republicans, helped by some Democrats who didn't think the Senate was going back to Democrat control anytime soon, tabled the Amendment effectively killing it. Who helped kill this rule change? Oh look! There's current whiner Bill Frist voting to kill that amendment. And, over there, Mitch McConnell. You see he and his fellow Republicans, in 1995, could still taste their very recent minority status. They still feared some day soon being in the minority again... only without the protection the filibuster provided them when they were filibustering Clinton nominees. As a note, Democratic Senator Harry Reid also sided with Frist and McConnell back then and voted to kill it too. Seems the flip-floppers here are McConnell and Frist if you ask me.

The Republicans had a chance to show how much they hate the filibuster back in 1995 and they took a pass. Now that they feel more comfortable being the majority they have flip-flopped on their "convictions."

Don't buy the lie. Democrats approved 218 of President Bush's judicial nominees during his first term. They've stopped only 10. Some may call that unreasonable, I call it "advising" and "consenting" which is the true Constitutional issue here.

Republicans depend on their constiuents to be ignorant of history. They tout themselves as the "Party of Lincoln" because most people have no clue that Lincoln was of the Republican Party at its most liberal point in history. If you ignore the history of this issue and side with those who have flip-flopped on the issue solely because they will gain power then that's why I'm way smarter than you.