Current Political Events: May 2005 Archives

Joshua Marshall of Talking Points Memo fame, has one of the most lucid interpretations of the current judicial crisis in the Senate I have yet to read. In a nutshell he argues that if preventing Presidential nominees from receiving an up or down vote in the Senate is unconstitutional, then this process has been unconstitutional for 200 years. The simple reason is that both parties have, in committee, or on the floor of the Senate, blocked up or down votes for the nominees by a President of the opposing party.

His article is an excellent read.

The nuclear option to deprive Democrats of the longstanding filibuster in the Senate which was designed to balance power in Congress is having an imploding effect on the GOP. When conceived, it was thought GOP solidarity would make unbalancing power in Congress for the benefit of Republican extremists a slam-dunk. Little did the dreamers realize that the GOP has patriotic American members who actually believe, and will stand up for, our American government and balance of power of a multi-party system.