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.

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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

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?