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May 24, 2005

I Have to Say...

I'm not that impressed thus far with John Podhertz's contributions to "The Corner." First, he completely trashes the latest Star Wars film, now he's calling the terrible judges deal a "victory:"

But what happened last night is very important. It breaks the Democratic logjam on circuit-court nominees. It establishes the principle that conservative judges have every right to serve on the higher benches even if Democrats can't stand it. And it means that if Republicans have to break the filibuster to ensure an up-or-down vote on a Supreme Court justice, they will have a very strong argument indeed. The argument will be that they are breaking the filibuster out of respect for the tradition that says the choices for the highest court must be advised and consented to by the full Senate. And all this was done without a major conflagration, which is (despite our hunger for major political melodrama) always preferable.

Yes, but it's also established the principle that the Senate has the right to tell the president what he can and cannot do, and also said that the minority in the Senate can dictate terms to the majority.

For me, this isn't about the number of judges we can confirm. It's about the right of a president to nominate who he wants, and the responsibility of the Senate to consider those nominations and give each nominee an up or down vote. The Democrats have won in the sense that they were able to keep the ability to filibuster future nominees. As I've said before, the Republicans should not have given them this power. If the Democrats, the minority party in the Senate, wanted to have a say in the judicial nomination process, they should have worked harder to build a majority.

What this boils down to is that the party that has lost the last three election cycles is being given the power to control the Senate, and has also been granted the power to tell the president who he can and cannot nominate to the federal bench. The Republicans never should have let this happen, but they did. And I predict they will pay dearly in next year's election for that decision.

Posted by slublog at May 24, 2005 12:50 AM

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Posted by: Seo Services at December 21, 2010 05:28 AM