The Last Showdown, The Filibuster

With all the high profile issues in the news these days, one item that has not been given the coverage it deserves is the fate of the filibuster. The filibuster, in short, allows senators to debate as long as they like, which effectively allows them to stall a vote they know they will lose. The Democrats would use the filibuster to stall votes on judicial nominees they find to be unfit for the job because they do not have the votes necessary to stop the nomination. In other words, the filibuster is often used by the minority party.

The contention in all of this is that the Republicans are threatening to kill the filibuster. They would do this by changing the rules upon which the Senate operates. Once this was done, majority rule would nominate whatever judicial appointment the majority saw fit to place on the bench. This has recently been referred to as the “nuclear option” by the Republicans.

One would hope that cooler heads would prevail here, but with judicial nominees at stake, who serve for life, that doesn’t seem likely.

Republicans find this especially irksome because they spent so many decades as the minority party. Now, as the majority party under a Republican president, they want to reshape the federal court system to curb what they see as its liberal bias — especially in decisions on social issues such as school prayer, civil rights and abortion.

Democrats note that most federal judges are Republican nominees — 55%. The proportion on the Supreme Court is even higher, with seven of nine justices Republican appointees. So Democrats contend that Republicans are not just interested in conservative judges or those with a limited view of judicial power, but judges inclined to be activist in the service of conservative ideology.

“They are seeking to take away the independence of the judiciary — the crown jewel in our system of government — so that they can advance their own ideological agenda of the day,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). “That is exactly the kind of tyranny that our ancestors fought to prevent.”

As the conflict moves toward its endgame, each side is counting votes. There may be 55 Republicans in the Senate, but a handful — mostly moderates and traditionalists — have expressed concern that the nuclear option is too drastic and would damage Republicans the next time they were the minority. (source)

We all have cause to be gravely concerned about this. I hear more and more conservatives saying that the Judicial system is broken - that it’s not working anymore. “Look what happened to Terri Schiavo”, they say. From my point of view, about the only part of our government who is doing it’s job is the Judicial Branch. The problem is, the very people complaining about the outcome of the Terri Schiavo case are complaining about the filibuster. They want to place any judge they want on the bench to assure (or at least stack the deck) future outcomes of cases such as that of Terri Schiavo.

It won’t stop there. Next will be school prayer, “controversial subjects” being discussed in our schools, which school will receive federal funding based on what they teach, among others.

You didn’t really think that all of this was about gay marriage, did you? That was only the beginning - the catalyst, if you will, to achieve the end-goal; that of killing the filibuster and gaining absolute power.

When that’s done, we will see the beginning of big changes in this country. At the end of the term of this administration, you can expect to see noticeable changes in judicial ideology. But the really big issue - the one that has teeth, is that these nominees will be around years after this administration is long gone.

And the only thing right now that stands in the way of that is the filibuster.

And this is happening now... as you read this.