Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig
(Post 860287)
the last time there was a push for filibuster reform, the dems decided not to bother-they didn't want to make it terribly difficult and end up cutting off their own nose to spite their own face. both parties expand then contract, and they know that. and when they're the minority, they don't want to rue the day they screwed themselves.
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The Dems have never done this to the extent the current GOP has. It's not remotely comparable.
As Reid said, he didn't do the reform previously in January because Republican minority Leader Mitch McConnell made a "gentleman's agreement" as minority leader to stop obstructing basic and necessary work of the Senate - which McConnell has repeatedly broken.
Such as not even allowing this routine matter to come to the floor for a vote. Needing 60 to bring something to the floor for a vote, when the vote counts say it will pass with 53-55 votes? That's just deliberate sabotage of our government. The Republicans should be ashamed.
There are hundreds of nationwide routine judge appointments being held up for no reason other than obstruction. The court system is backed up as a result of GOP obstruction.
I'd guess the reform will just be stopping the ability to block something from being brought to the floor for a fair discussion and vote by all the Senate members, as the GOP is doing to literally everything now.
A filibuster of final votes should still be allowed.
Quote:
Opinion - Our View
Thursday, Mar. 08, 2012
Our View: Senate must stop blocking judges
Republicans standing in the way of qualified nominees help keep courts crowded, give Obama political ammo.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are once again using President Barack Obama's judicial nominations as pawns in a political chess match. There's even loose talk of putting off votes as long as possible, in hopes that Obama loses in November and the seats can be filled by a Republican president.
That's absurd. There are too many vacancies on federal courts in California and other states, where there aren't enough judges to handle the caseloads. Too often, justice delayed really is justice denied.
Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada is so fed up that he's willing to go to war to get confirmation votes on the Senate floor, Politico reports.
Good for him. The Republicans deserve to be called out on their obstructionism -- and their hypocrisy, since they often complain about how slow the federal courts are.
The focus is on 14 qualified nominees who won bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, including two from California who were unanimously approved but have been on hold for months.
One is Jacqueline Nguyen of Los Angeles, who was nominated by Obama last September for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and endorsed by the judiciary panel Dec. 1. The first Vietnamese-American woman to serve as a federal judge, she was 10 when her family fled Vietnam at the end of the war. They started as refugees in Camp Pendleton and made their own version of the American Dream.
Another is Michael Fitzgerald, who was nominated last July for a judgeship in the Central District of California and received committee approval Nov. 3. A Los Angeles attorney and former federal prosecutor, he would become the first openly gay federal judge in the state and the fourth nationwide.
Both those courts are in an official "judicial emergency" because cases are so backed up.
It must be said that there are also political advantages for Obama if the delays continue. It would give him more ammunition to campaign against a "do-nothing Congress." Given the ways of Washington, that may be the most likely scenario.
But for those of us in the real world -- particularly those seeking justice in the federal courts -- it would be far, far better if these qualified jurists could get to work.
Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/03...#storylink=cpy
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