Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist issued a statement Friday indicating that he will move the Senate into a debate on up-or-down votes for Judicial nominees:
May 13th, 2005 - Upon completion of action on the pending highway bill, the Senate will begin debate on fair up or down votes on judicial nominations. As is the regular order, the Leader will move to act on judge nominations sent to the full Senate by the Judiciary Committee in the past several weeks. Priscilla Owen, to serve as a judge for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Janice Rogers Brown, to serve as a judge for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, will be the nominees of focus.
It's about time. This usurpation of power and abdication of responsibility - not to mention, abject hypocrisy - by Senate Democrats must come to an end.
The Democrats are playing a very dangerous game. Aside from setting aside 214 years of Senate tradition, abdicating the responsibility inherent in the advise-and-consent clause, and trying to force an unconstitutional 60-vote majority on Presidential judicial nominees, the Democrats are risking two critical outcomes: 1) they are forcing the Republicans' hand on the issue, providing them the means and motive, for the first time since they reclaimed Majority status 10 years ago, to act as the Majority party, and 2) the relegation of the Democrat party reputation to that of obstruction, irrelevance, hypocrisy, classlessness, and irrelevance.
More later...
(Hat Tip: Blogs 4 Bush)
