Tuesday, May 24, 2005

The Compromise

The group of 14

Robert Byrd (West Virginia)Daniel Inouye (Hawaii)Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut) Ben Nelson (Nebraska) Mark Pryor (Arkansas)Ken Salazar (Colorado)RepublicansLincoln Chafee (Rhode Island)Susan Collins (Maine)Mike DeWine (Ohio)Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)John McCain (Arizona)John Warner (Virginia)Olympia Snowe (Maine)

I look at the compromise from a different perspective. Does this compromise free Democrats in red states to vote to end a filibuster? I believe that at least five of the seven Democrats would be willing to have a floor vote for most all of the judges nominated by George Bush. Also, Kent Conrad is a Democrat from North Dakota who is not on the list, but is from a red state as well as being a class I Senator (he is up for re-election in 2006).

The anger is the Republican base right now. But the difficulty ahead is with the Democratic leadership. Ben Nelson’s quote:

"Only those [nominees] that are subject to extraordinary circumstances are unlikely to get a vote,"

It will still take 41 Senators to maintain a filibuster. Frist will likely have no problem keeping his 55 together when moving to end a future filibuster. But how will Reid do the same on his side? Vulnerable Democratic Senators will have to answer for each future nominee individually. Till now, they were able to reject all the judges as a group.

The big problem for the Democrats is that any judge the approve of now will be difficult to block when Supreme Court openings occur. Everyone knows this is the real ballgame anyhow.

The Republicans can continue to be consistent in their belief that all the judges can get an up or down vote. But the Democrats cannot agree to let at least three judges be approved and remain consistent with their statement that this group of judges were too extreme. Yes, the Republicans as a party caved, but the Democrats as a party are caught in a case of double speak. I believe it is the Democrats who are feeding the crocodile.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home