Breaking News! Deal Avoids Filibuster...

[Nickdfresh]

More details as they come...

From www.CNN.com :

A bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal to avert a showdown over President Bush's judicial nominees, congressional sources tell CNN. Details soon.

Sen. McCain is speaking now. News conference in progress...

[Nickdfresh]

May 23, 7:42 PM EDT

Senators Said to Reach Filibuster Deal

By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Centrists from both parties reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush's stalled judicial nominees and the Senate's own filibuster rules, officials from both parties said.

These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would clear the way for yes-or-no votes on some of Bush's nominees, but make no guarantee.

Under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."

For their part, Republicans agreed not to support an attempt to strip Democrats of their right to block votes.

Under the agreement, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, nominated to a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, would advance to a final confirmation vote.

Senate Republican leader Bill Frist has made her a test vote in a bruising showdown over the fate of several appeals courts nominees that Democrats blocked in the past and had threatened to block again.

With the series of climatic vote set for Tuesday, compromise-minded senators of both parties met in the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for a last stab at compromise

They arranged to make a formal anouncement at a news conference.

Hatch says the Democrats have gone overboard in using the filibuster.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FILIBUSTER_FIGHT?SITE=NYBUE&SECTION=HOME

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[FORD]

Everybody should pray for Billy Rehnquist's continued recovery and work like Hell to restore sanity to Congress in 2006.

[academic punk]

Originally posted by FORD
Everybody should pray for Billy Rehnquist's continued recovery and work like Hell to restore sanity to Congress in 2006.

That's a REEEEEAAAAAL likely scenario.

[Warham]

The Democrats had no choice in the matter. Cave in or face the nuke.

[FORD]

It's pretty fucking pathetic when the most extreme fraudministration in the history of this country can get 95% confirmation on the most extreme judges in the history of this country, and that still isn't enough for the fucking fascist pigs.

[magikmountn2]

Originally posted by FORD
It's pretty fucking pathetic when the most extreme fraudministration in the history of this country can get 95% confirmation on the most extreme judges in the history of this country, and that still isn't enough for the fucking fascist pigs.

you should be happy ford because this is a victory for the democrats.
the republicans cant really think this is a victory for them because it took 4 years to do what normally takes a couple of months at best.
the deal is going to cost the republican party with the hard right voters. what judge was it thet wanted to do away with mothers day and fathers day? there isnt much eveidence that these judges being considered are extreme. the fact is that republicans had the votes to confirm and the democrats did all that they could do to hold up democracy and sabotage bush. these judges will shape politics for years to come and they know it.

[Warham]

That's Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice you are referring to, magik.

[Dr. Love]

wait, so the deal is, "We won't try to take away your ability to stop us ... if you don't try to stop us."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by magikmountn2
you should be happy ford because this is a victory for the democrats.
the republicans cant really think this is a victory for them because it took 4 years to do what normally takes a couple of months at best.
the deal is going to cost the republican party with the hard right voters. what judge was it thet wanted to do away with mothers day and fathers day? there isnt much eveidence that these judges being considered are extreme. the fact is that republicans had the votes to confirm and the democrats did all that they could do to hold up democracy and sabotage bush. these judges will shape politics for years to come and they know it.

This is a victory for nobody. The Democrats are merely playing the same game the Republicans did when CLINTON was in power, judicial gridlock has become the norm. How quickly you guys forget that!

[magikmountn2]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
This is a victory for nobody. The Democrats are merely playing the same game the Republicans did when CLINTON was in power, judicial gridlock has become the norm. How quickly you guys forget that!

what was the longest period of "judicial gridlock" during clinton? is it even close to 4 years? i challenge you to find one clinton appointee that took more than 3-4 months to get approved. i never said i was republican by the way so ....

[FORD]

Originally posted by magikmountn2
what was the longest period of "judicial gridlock" during clinton? is it even close to 4 years? i challenge you to find one clinton appointee that took more than 3-4 months to get approved. i never said i was republican by the way so ....


The statistics tell the story. During the first Bush administration—with a Democratic Senate—it took only 77 days for an appeals court nominee to receive a hearing. It took 81 days during President Clinton's first term. Clinton nominees waited considerably longer when Republicans controlled the Senate-an average of 231 days during 1997, 98 days in 1999, and 247 days in 2000. If Chairman Hatch had convened more hearings, the wait would have been shorter. The Judiciary Committee only had 11 hearings in 1998, seven in 1999, and eight in 2000. Some nominees never had a hearing, including Enrique Moreno to the Fifth Circuit, Elena Kagan to the D.C. Circuit, James Wynn to the Fourth Circuit, and Helene White to the Sixth Circuit.
Given those statistics, it is not surprising that when the Senate was under Republican control, 45.3 percent of President Clinton's appellate court nominees were returned to the White House—a rate 72 percent higher than the 26.3 percent return rate for Presidents Reagan and Bush when Democrats controlled the Senate.16 And because the Republicans refused to confirm so many Clinton nominees, at the end of the Clinton administration, there were 81 judicial vacancies —26 on the courts of appeal — and 63 Clinton nominees never had a hearing or a vote in the Judiciary Committee.

link (http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/judges/ch2.html)

Compare that to the 95% percent approval rate of the BCE appointed judges, and I would say it's obvious who the "obstructionists" really are.

[magikmountn2]

you should get your info from a source that isnt paid for by democrats. even with that your info/link you failed to produce a gridlock close to 4 years.

[FORD]

Originally posted by magikmountn2
you should get your info from a source that isnt paid for by democrats. even with that your info/link you failed to produce a gridlock close to 4 years.

January 1995 - January 2001

That's 6 years, based on where I learned math. I guess your home schoolin' didn't go so good? Your mom/sister wasn't that great at math, I take it?

Also, the site I linked to has no affiliation with the Democratic party whatsoever, so please stop making false generalizations.

[magikmountn2]

Originally posted by FORD
January 1995 - January 2001

That's 6 years, based on where I learned math. I guess your home schoolin' didn't go so good? Your mom/sister wasn't that great at math, I take it?

Also, the site I linked to has no affiliation with the Democratic party whatsoever, so please stop making false generalizations.

you got me on the link. i read it too quick. i had moveon.org on the brain or something. i wouldnt doubt that it was funded by democrats though. either way you cant add the days together for your six years and call it the same type of thing going on. we are talking about no hearing or return to the white house for 4 years for the same people. no republican filibuster. republicans could have and should have used the nuke. since they didnt the democrats are the victors here. republican senators will suffer in the next elections for being so weak.
c'mon seriously which judge is so radical and/or extreme. arent the democrats the chapions of the minority? well they have shown no support for any judge that is not a democrat. so they are only for extreme left minority judges? or is it just extreme left judges?

[magikmountn2]

Originally posted by Warham
That's Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice you are referring to, magik.

thanks. i knew somebody had to remember that one.

[FORD]

Originally posted by magikmountn2

c'mon seriously which judge is so radical and/or extreme. arent the democrats the chapions of the minority? well they have shown no support for any judge that is not a democrat. so they are only for extreme left minority judges? or is it just extreme left judges?

Ok, now which part of They Have Approved 95% Of Junior's Nominees do you not understand??

[magikmountn2]

Originally posted by FORD
Ok, now which part of They Have Approved 95% Of Junior's Nominees do you not understand??

i thought we were talking about the judges that have been waiting for 4 years. maybe we are just talking about different things here. the first two years of bush the parties were united for the most part. then came the pre-election posturing. now we have the democrats trying to sabotage bush so that anything democrats do next will be better. this is all a power grab. the democrats pulled it off when they shouldnt have.

[Cathedral]

The "Nuke Option" as it has been dubbed is off the table, but it isn't gone for good as we'll all just have to wait and see what the next several weeks has in store for us all.
Following politics is a lot like anticipating someone elses silent fart, nobody notices it until it's already an airborn stinky.

I have to agree though, Bush has the highest rating in history at 95% of his choices being confirmed, but that still doesn't excuse the obstructionism that has led to this whole mess in the first place.

The bottom line is that there are far too many judicial seats vacant and if these backbiting politicians don't get their acts together and start doing the work of the people they will find re-election to their own seats an uphill climb on flat tires.

I don't give a flying fuck who is in charge when there is so much bullshit taking up time that could be better spent serving the tax payers.
"Liberals" this and "BCE" that, who gives a shit, neither side is more important than the other and damn few of them are actually doing what they were elected to do for either party.

Y'all can stand there and pick sides if you want, I'd rather send in a cleaner and get rid of ALL the dead wood collecting a salary in Washington.

As long as the citizens of America (that's us) are busy going at each others throats over this shit then the attention won't be placed where it should be...On the one's actually making the decisions, the politicians.

Politics: The New Racism!