Filibuster deal not so bad after all
Insider Politics Blog
The Washington Times
Suddenly it looks like the Senate’s anti-filibuster deal by the Gang of 14 was a bad move for the Democrats and a clever way of getting some of President Bush’s judicial nominees confirmed and on the Appeals Court.
About half a dozen — and likely many more — of Mr. Bush’s nominees were never going to see the light of day while the Democrats had 60 votes to prevent an up or down vote on any of them. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was pushing a rules change to forever end filibusters against judicial nominees, and it appeared that he had the votes to do that until seven Republicans and seven Democrats hashed out an agreement to allow votes on nearly half a dozen nominees and possibly more. That undercut Mr. Frist’s rules change efforts. The media spun the story as a victory for Democrats and a defeat for Mr. Frist and the White House
But it looks like, for the time being at least, that the deal actually knocked down the Berlin Wall of obstruction that the Democrats had erected to prevent any of Mr. Bush’s conservative judicial nominees from getting on the Appeals Court.
In a rush of consecutive votes, rapidly escalated by Mr. Frist to take advantage of the Gang of 14’s agreement, the Senate has confirmed Priscilla Owen of Texas, Janice Rogers Brown of California and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor. Then came the surprisingly swift approval of two more nominees, Michigan Appeals Court Judge Richard Griffin and District Judge David W. McKeague, who were unanimously confirmed to sit on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Several more judges are expected to be approved. Before this is over, they will clearly tilt the Appeal Court’s judiciary in a distinctly more conservative direction for many years to come.
The deal cooked up by the Gang of 14 said that future filibusters could occur, though only under “extraordinary” circumstances. But two of the Republican senators who were part of the deal, Ohio’s Mike DeWine and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, have made it clear that they will vote to implement Mr. Frist’s rules change if the Democrats attempt to filibuster future nominees. That would give Frist the 50 votes he needs, along with Vice President Dick Cheney, to pass his motion that now sits on his desk, ready to be called up at a moment’s notice to override any Democratic efforts to block other judges.
Looking back over the results, nothing would have happened to break the logjam if Mr. Frist had not proposed his “nuclear option.” Just the threat of using it broke seven Democratic votes away from the “just say no” Democrats, who saw their filibuster wall collapse long enough to put more of Mr. Bush’s nominees on the bench.
From where I sit, the Democrats lost a big battle in the ongoing judicial war, and America’s court system gained some hardcore conservative judges.
— Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent
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