Frist Says He's Not Interested in Deals
Republican leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he isn't interested in any deal that fails to ensure Senate confirmation for all of President Bush's judicial nominees.
(My emphasis)
Now who looks like the obstructionists? The Dems offered a deal, and the Republicans said no. Bush has nominated 200 judges, and the Democrats have blocked 10. That's a 95 percent success rate, and yet the Republicans want 100 percent. Incredible.
...and by the way, everyone, was this the correct thing, tactically speaking, for Frist to do? Did the Democrats offer the deal expecting it to get shot down? Oh, the possibilities...
5 comments:
Republican Judge Nominee Janice Rogers Brown, an ultra-right winger whom the Dems have filibustered, gave this speech yesterday,
"There seems to have been no time since the Civil War that this country was so bitterly divided. It's not a shooting war, but it is a war," she said, according to a report published Monday in the Stamford Advocate.
"These are perilous times for people of faith," she said, "not in the sense that we are going to lose our lives, but in the sense that it will cost you something if you are a person of faith who stands up for what you believe in and say those things out loud."
The truth couldn't be more different. Fundamentalist Christians are in power. Those of us who *oppose* them are the ones in danger.
// posted by The Law Talking Guy
I think I'd be in agreement with LTG that this quotation is both an alarming example of theocratic newspeak an indication of what is at stake.
If your political ideology is based on religion and your personal interpretation of God's will, no compromise is possible. But these people do not control the entire GOP caucus in the Senate yet. We may get our half dozen reasonable Senators in the end.
// posted by Raised By Republicans
One other comment on this: We may have seen an example here of Ried making an offer he doesn't want to accept because he is confident the other side won't go for it. If this is the case, then Ried has ice water in his veins! Wow!
This sets up the Democrats to look - again - like the reasonable ones lookig for compromise while the Republicans insist on all or nothing solutions.
// posted by Raised By Republicans
Frist's dramatic refusal of Reid's offer is a mild boon to the Democrats. The religious fearmongering of Janice Rogers Brown is another. And I just remembered a quote from Sen Reid, reported in US News, that makes me re-think my dismissal of the credibility of the Dem's threat (and gives credence to RxR's "ice in the veins" theory"):
"A reporter once asked him why he was so bent on punishing a law firm that had crossed him. Reid responded: 'I believe in vengeance.' It's hard to tell whether he was joking or not. [End of article]"
--US News & World Report, 11/29/04, "A leader in the wilderness."
Ah, the perfect man for playing a "Grim Trigger" strategy in an indefinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma! Let's hope his avowed belief in vengance will lead to deterence!
// posted by Raised By Republicans
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