DC DEMOCRATIC SENATE INVERTEBRATES SURRENDER, DECLARE VICTORY

It's been a couple of weeks since the "moderates" in the Senate supposedly headed off the "nuclear option" of eliminating the "judicial filibuster" in the Senate. Their great compromise was this: the Democrats promised not to use the filibuster if the Republicans promised not to eliminate it from the Rule Book. So, now the Republicans have it remaining in place for their own future use, should the tables ever turn in the Senate, and the Republicans also have a promise from the Democrats to allow confirmation of the most extremist right-wing nominees. The Democrats also promised that in the future they would use the judicial filibuster only in "extraordinary circumstances"; but, if the current set of the most extremist nominees are no longer considered extraordinary, how will any others be? And of course, if and when the Democrats do decide that a future nomination is an "extraordinary" case, the "nuclear option" would of course come right back to the table by the Bushist extremists at Frist and Co. Thus, the Republicans got everything they wanted: approval of their nominees, and retention of the "nuclear option" for the future. We wound up with the same result- confirmed extremist nominees- that we would have gotten with the adoption of the "nuclear option" this month. The Democrats got, as far as I can see, NOTHING.

Somewhere along the line, the Democratic moderates (Joe Lieberman and other Republican wanna-bes) forgot that the issue is protection of the people from a judiciary dominated by partisan extremists, and decided that what the people really cared about was protection of the filibuster rule. But people don't care about Senate rules, they care about justice. They care about restraining a system that is coming close to single-party domination- the Presidency, Senate, House, Supreme Court, and Media all controlled by a single party with the slimmest of majorities, despite the fact that 49.9% of the people of this country support the other party. The Republicans certainly are abusing their power and showing no interest in representing the other half of their constituency, and that is wrong. However, the "moderates" are misguided to think they are protecting minority party rights by promising not to use them. It amounts to a humiliating unilateral disarmament by the Democrats. We would have been better off if the "nuclear option" had passed- at least the Republicans wouldn't be able to use the judicial filibuster either.

Instead of fighting to save the filibuster for the use of Republicans only, the Democrats should have focused on the real meaningful goal: keeping right-wing extremists off of lifetime appointments to the federal bench. Just as the Republicans used various procedural tricks to keep President Clinton's appointees from receiving up-or-down votes (giving home state senators blue slip veto power; bottling up in Committee), the Democrats have been playing their only card, the filibuster. But a more direct approach, that would have a moral weight to it that might even be agreed to on a bipartisan basis, would be to change the law to require a super-majority of 60%, or even 67%, in the Senate, to approve any lifetime appointments. Lifetime appointments to the courts should represent moderate, non-partisan American values, rather than an extremist or partisan agenda. Requiring a super-majority for such appointments would force the President to nominate strong candidates that are acceptable to the majority of Americans. These lifetime appointees are not accountable to the people- they never need to seek re-election- and therefore they deserve the extra scrutiny and wide appeal and acceptance that a super-majority would require. Truly moderate and patriotic Republicans and Democrats on both sides could look at the long-term protection of the Republic, and support such a measure, whether they are currently in control or not.

So, who cares about the judicial filibuster? Fix the real problem: require super-majority approval of lifetime appointments.

 

 

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