This AP story (via Yahoo! News) is a fairly mild account of Bush's ultimatum to the senate to hold floor votes on his judicial nominees, but it contains an incredibly offensive and provocative statement from Ted Kennedy (D-MA) that screams for some action on the part of the GOP senate leadership. Kennedy is discussing the 30 hour back-and-forth session currently underway on three Bush nominees:
"Thirty hours on judges?" said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., at the Democrats' late-night rally. "There are 13 million hungry children in America tonight but Republicans don't have time to debate that."
Bill Frist should immediately submit the nominations, and watch the Democrats squirm. Fat Teddy will be left swinging in the breeze as his colleagues will either filibuster the nominations, marking him as a hypocrite, or allow the votes, which will infuriate him as the nominees are not leftist enough for his tastes.
Ordinarily, actually requiring speakers to speak during a filibuster is considered a losing proposition for the majority, but since Kennedy wants to play hardball, I think this might be the exception to the rule.
BTW, I think the Democratic Party's efforts to pin the economy on Bush will backfire, as we appear to be entering a "virtuous cycle", in which an improving economy increases consumer confidence (and spending) which improves the economy, and so forth). I doubt we will hear much about the "Bush Economy" from the Democrats after the primaries, as they will be looking for another issue since that will have been taken away from them.
posted on November 13, 2003 09:36 AM
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