Time for a political outing

Last week’s 40-hour “Justice for Judges” marathon in the United States Senate – designed to call attention to the Democrats’ unprecedented use of the filibuster against the president’s judicial nominees – fell flatter than a leaky breast implant.

If you doubt my assessment, go out onto the street and ask the first 10 people you meet, “Who are Priscilla Owen, Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown?”

Think you can get one person in 10 who can identify the three nominees who were the primary subjects of last week’s talk-a-thon?

I wouldn’t bet my life on it.

Sure, it got a little coverage by the national news media but very little. The news networks rarely went “live” to the debate on the Senate floor. When they did, it was for only a minute or two.

In contrast to this up-all-night marathon, Lakers star Kobe Bryant’s brief 12-minute court appearance last Thursday was covered from the time he climbed out of his black SUV until he was safely on his way back home.

What effect will the outcome of the Bryant trial have on our daily lives? There will be none at all.

What effect will the outcome of this battle over Mr. Bush’s appeals court nominees have on our daily lives? It will affect everything we do – what our children are taught in schools, how we conduct our business, what we can say in our private lives and, ultimately, how our country is governed.

Nevertheless, this marathon – which by sport standards was no more than a 5K – was a yawner.

Why?

It meant absolutely nothing. The outcome was never in doubt.

The Republican leadership went out on this limb in an attempt to “use” the media to call attention to their plight. The media simply will not be used. It can smell a cheap publicity stunt a mile away.

Friday morning, cloture votes were taken for the three aforementioned judges. That’s the formal process of ending debate (breaking a filibuster) in the Senate. It requires the approval of 60 senators. As expected, all three cloture votes failed.

It is important to point out that each of these women will be confirmed if they are allowed straight up-or-down votes, as will Bill Pryor and Charles Pickering, whose nominations also have been blocked by these filibusters.

In short, Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the Senate, spent their half of the 40 hours railing about how unfair it is to employ this never-before-used tactic to block judicial appointments. Many, rightly, made the point that the use of the filibuster against judicial appointments is unconstitutional.

Clearly, the framers intended presidential nominees to be confirmed by a simply 51-vote majority, not a supermajority of 60 senators.

The very least we should expect from all senators – regardless of party or persuasion – is that they do whatever it takes to defend the Constitution because the consequences of allowing it to be degraded are too scary to imagine.

Most senators will not!

The liberal, Democrat senators who began filibustering Mr. Bush judicial nominees obviously don’t care about the Constitution. Unfortunately, what we learned from that pitiful exercise last week is that many Republican senators won’t defend it either.

The sad truth is that there are some things the majority party can do with 51 votes to get beyond this matter. However, Majority Leader Bill Frist simply cannot get the 51 votes he needs to confront Democrats on this issue because about a dozen Republican senators prefer talk (whining) to action.

It’s not the usual suspects. I have it on good authority that some senators, viewed as staunch conservatives, fall into this category. Some of these people simply are looking over their shoulders and see the filibuster of judges as a tactic they now might want to employ if they should find themselves in the minority. Some are committee chairmen who are afraid a confrontation with Democrats will hold up legislation they view as a priority and some merely want to use it as a political issue in the next election.

It is time for the Republican leadership to take the needed action and – if necessary – start naming names. Those who want to put their own short-term political goals above the Constitution must be persuaded to get on board or they must be exposed.

Our Constitution has given us a government that has been the model for those seeking opportunity and freedom around the globe. It is far too important to be sacrificed for the whims of a few spoiled-rotten senators.