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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Seems Very Democratic

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) tried to secure time this week to speak on the Senate floor about Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would not allow any time for speeches until January 25, a day after the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on Alito's nomination.

The normal practice of the majority leader is to give senators time to make floor speeches about the nominee.


This is one of those cases where Republicans are trying to play up the media narrative that "the confirmation is all but assured, the ballgame is over" on one hand, while furiously stifling dissent and desperately clinging to support behind the scenes. They did the same thing with the Patriot Act, placing stories in the paper that "a deal has been reached" when absolutely nothing of the sort was done. The whole thing has been a smokescreen. This confirmation is far from over.

Already two of the most conservative Democratic Senators have come out against Alito: Max Baucus of Montana and Ken Salazar of Colorado. And Salazar even used the F word:

Given his stated objections, reporters asked whether Salazar would rule out a filibuster as an option if he votes against Alito. Salazar declined to do that, although none of the Senate Democrats who have announced their opposition thus far have threatened a filibuster.


Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who is in a re-election year, is so far the only Democrat to go public and say he's voting for Alito. There seem to be enough votes to perpetuate a filibuster of the nominee. The question is whether or not the Democrats have the political will to do it. Because if they do it will unquestionably trigger the Nuclear Option and a toe-to-toe battle in the Senate. In an election year. I don't really think either side wants that. The question really is who will blink first.

But clearly, the prohibition on floor speeches is absurd, and in my opinion Democrats should threaten the filibuster just for that reason alone.

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