Anti-Filibuster Balderdash
If Bush nominates a radical right replacement for O'Connor, he deserves what he gets
 

July 8 2005
Counterbias.com
Steve Horowitz
 

Earlier tonight I heard Sen. Brownback of Kansas parroting the administration line about how the Democrats shouldn't commit the sin of filibustering an O'Connor-replacement nominee, and how every nominee deserves "an up or down vote."

To which I can only say, nonsense. Complete and utter.

Given his obstinately divisive nature, Bush could easily put up someone like Janice Brown for O'Connor's seat on the Court. And if he does, shouldn't progressives fight it? And isn't the filibuster a long-established and recognized weapon in such a fight, used by both parties when they think desperate measures are called for?

Indeed, the Senate's own glossary defines the filibuster as "any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions."

So why shouldn't Democrats use this centuries-old tool to resist an extremist justice being rammed down the nation's throat by an uncompromising ideologue?

It's at this point in the argument that conservatives come back with that "deserving an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate" bullshit.

But how many bills never make it to committee -- never mind a vote on the Senate floor -- because of procedural decisions by the Senate leadership?

How many nominees for the thousands of federal posts are stifled in committee? The Republican Senate made a habit of keeping Bill Clinton's nominees from the Senate floor by any number of "delaying or obstructing tactics," and we didn't hear this ceaseless whining about the sacred up or down vote.

The truth is, no "bill or other matter" is entitled to a vote by the full Senate, any more than a Senator is entitled to hearings on bill he's proposed, or to a seat on a prestigious committee.

"Up or down vote" is a catch-phrase created by Bush propagandists to swindle Americans into thinking it's some kind of legal doctrine, and that it's the normal expectation with every "bill or other matter" that comes before the Senate leadership. It is neither.

And you can be damn sure that Republicans will be saying exactly that when they're the minority again -- a year and a half from now.