http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004166
Rainbow Filibuster Coalition
The Democrats aren't prejudiced--they bork everybody.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
Senate Democrats are preparing to filibuster more of President Bush's appeals court nominees, making it a good time to note that the original meaning of the word "filibuster" was "pirate."
The 17th-century marauders known as Filibustiers pillaged the Spanish colonies in the West Indies, slashing and burning as they went. The Democratic minority in the Senate is rampaging through the Constitution, trampling on 200 years of practice in confirming federal judges by simple majority vote. As the list of victims mounts, it's also instructive to note the rainbow coalition that Democrats find unacceptable.
Six of them are pictured nearby. All of them come with the endorsement of the bar. All have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and all have enough Democratic support to be confirmed on the Senate floor.
Yet all are being blocked by a liberal minority that is overruling the results of the past two elections by imposing a new 60-vote super-majority qualification on the Constitution's advise and consent clause. The nature of Democratic objections to these nominees reveals what a raw power play this is. There's always some new excuse that provides some political cover.
Honduran immigrant Miguel Estrada's sin was that the Bush Administration refused to release internal memos he wrote while serving in the Clinton Justice Department. Never mind that no Justice Department would release such private communications, and that the two Democratic Solicitors General he worked for testified to his integrity and ability to enforce laws he disagrees with. After 28 months of waiting to get a vote, Mr. Estrada decided to withdraw his nomination and get on with his life in August.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen is unacceptable because she voted to uphold a state parental-notification law on abortion. That law is very precise about the conditions under which a parent must be informed. Nine times she voted to let the girl have the abortion but three times she ruled that a parent must be notified. Somehow this makes her "extreme."
Alabama Attorney General William Pryor has also run afoul of the Democratic abortion litmus test. Though he's vowed to follow the law and says he would uphold Roe v. Wade, he made the mistake of saying that he agrees with JFK Supreme Court Justice Byron White that Roe was wrongly decided.
Rainbow Filibuster Coalition
The Democrats aren't prejudiced--they bork everybody.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
Senate Democrats are preparing to filibuster more of President Bush's appeals court nominees, making it a good time to note that the original meaning of the word "filibuster" was "pirate."
The 17th-century marauders known as Filibustiers pillaged the Spanish colonies in the West Indies, slashing and burning as they went. The Democratic minority in the Senate is rampaging through the Constitution, trampling on 200 years of practice in confirming federal judges by simple majority vote. As the list of victims mounts, it's also instructive to note the rainbow coalition that Democrats find unacceptable.
Six of them are pictured nearby. All of them come with the endorsement of the bar. All have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and all have enough Democratic support to be confirmed on the Senate floor.
Yet all are being blocked by a liberal minority that is overruling the results of the past two elections by imposing a new 60-vote super-majority qualification on the Constitution's advise and consent clause. The nature of Democratic objections to these nominees reveals what a raw power play this is. There's always some new excuse that provides some political cover.
Honduran immigrant Miguel Estrada's sin was that the Bush Administration refused to release internal memos he wrote while serving in the Clinton Justice Department. Never mind that no Justice Department would release such private communications, and that the two Democratic Solicitors General he worked for testified to his integrity and ability to enforce laws he disagrees with. After 28 months of waiting to get a vote, Mr. Estrada decided to withdraw his nomination and get on with his life in August.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen is unacceptable because she voted to uphold a state parental-notification law on abortion. That law is very precise about the conditions under which a parent must be informed. Nine times she voted to let the girl have the abortion but three times she ruled that a parent must be notified. Somehow this makes her "extreme."
Alabama Attorney General William Pryor has also run afoul of the Democratic abortion litmus test. Though he's vowed to follow the law and says he would uphold Roe v. Wade, he made the mistake of saying that he agrees with JFK Supreme Court Justice Byron White that Roe was wrongly decided.
