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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (16929)	5/12/2005 7:58:57 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Some of the Bush nominees have been filibustered for more than 1,000 days. That's just simply not true. There's been no contintual filibuster of a nominee for 1,000 days. The Senate interrupts a filibuster by suspending debate [Another Senate rule that isn't mentioned in the Constitution or the Federalist Papers]. If I were Frist, I'd call them on it. Tell them "Fine. You want to filibuster than you'll have to talk until the End of Days [Biblical reference]. Let's just see how long you last. Call up the Guinness people and get your name in the book. We're going to sit here in the Senate until we all rot, or come to cloture, or you give up. We will not suspend debate. If you want to take responsibility for closing down all business of the Senate and spend the rest of your life blithering away, then go for it." The Senate establishes Senate rules. It's their prerogative. If they don't like the rules, the Senate can change them. Frist [the majority] can use the Senate rules to force the filbustering Senator[s] to talk ad infinitum. At some point I suspect that the Senate would come to cloture. Frist can use the current Senate rules [in a rather creative way] to end the filibuster with a simple majority vote and bring the nomination to an up or down vote. IMO, Frist has at a minimum three options available to him that could end the filibuster in a way that is favorable to the majority. At the moment, he chooses to use none of them. I assume that Sen Frist is not stupid and he chooses the current path, because he believes it is to his benefit. What benefit he attempts to extract and whether that gain will be realized, I can't say. I don't know what goes on in the mind of Sen Frist. But one thing I feel certain of, is that Frist believes the conservative base is too stupid to figure that out. jttmab