Politics22 May 2005 11:08 am
The Washington Post has a great piece by Dick Meyer, which describes the “nuclear” debate on judicial nominees as a symptom of systemic disease which is slowly killing the character of the senate.
The Senate has managed to conduct the business of confirming or rejecting federal judges with relative efficiency and only occasional controversy for some 200 years. That the Senate is now going nuclear (to use its own vocabulary) over this legislative chore is a symptom of a rather serious illness in the upper body.
I agree with his arguments, especially with the assertion that this Senate has not passed any legislation that will be remembered positively ten years from now.
May 24th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
I read your piece, and the post piece and I still can’t figure out why they call it “the nuclear option”
May 25th, 2005 at 8:46 am
Hmm here are some articles from when the term was originated by Senate Republicans (Frist).
Washington Monthly
Change For America
Neither of them give us any idea as to why Frist thought it was a good idea to call it the Nuclear Option. Of course now the Rebulicans are calling it the Constitutional Option and the Dems are calling it the Nuclear Option. My only guess is that there is going to be a lot of collateral damage if this option is exercised, as it will probably lead to othe death of all filibusters.
May 25th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Another article on the “nuclear option” from the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation. Apparently the term was coined by the Democrats way back in 1975. No wonder I don’t remember it!
June 9th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
I am sure that the Senate will be positively remembered many years from now by a whole lot of misguided, blindly-allegiant lemmings for their aiding and abetting the war crimes perpetrated by Bush, Cheny, Rove, Rumsfeld, et. al.
June 9th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I believe that Bush will get the credit for whatever fallout / praise is going to come from the Iraq war. Mostly because those in favor of the war view the Senate as a rubber stamp of the president. How dare they question his appointment of federal judges with racist and sexist comments recorded in their judegements?