Nuclear Tuesday
Well, it appears next Tuesday will probably be Senator Frist's occasion to revoke the filibuster for judicial nominees by unilaterally ignoring the Senate parliamentarian and changing the rules.
Norman Ornstein, a respected political analyst and resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has called for a specific list of Senators, who he claims should know better, to do the honorable thing and buck their leaders on this.
Those Senators are: Lugar, Warner, Cochran, Stevens, and Domenici. In addition he names, four Senators who he calls "lost causes": Dole, Alexander, Hatch, and Bennett.
Other Senators that are possible opponents of the nuclear option include the Northeast RINO's Chafee, Snowe, Collins, and Specter; the maverick presidential hopefuls McCain and Hagel; and Senators Sununu, Smith, and (surprisingly) Graham.
Including Ornstein's four "lost causes", that makes 18 possible votes against the nuclear option from the Republicans. With all 44 Democrats and Jim Jeffords, the Senate's lone independent, likely to vote against, and Vice President Cheney on record as saying he'll support the nuclear option, the Democrats would need 6 out of the above 18 to vote with them. Will they get them? Frist says he will have the votes. But should we believe him? According to a recent New York Daily New Article, he doesn't have the votes, and it will really put a dent in his plans to be selected President by the Supreme Court in 2008:
Abram
Norman Ornstein, a respected political analyst and resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has called for a specific list of Senators, who he claims should know better, to do the honorable thing and buck their leaders on this.
Those Senators are: Lugar, Warner, Cochran, Stevens, and Domenici. In addition he names, four Senators who he calls "lost causes": Dole, Alexander, Hatch, and Bennett.
Other Senators that are possible opponents of the nuclear option include the Northeast RINO's Chafee, Snowe, Collins, and Specter; the maverick presidential hopefuls McCain and Hagel; and Senators Sununu, Smith, and (surprisingly) Graham.
Including Ornstein's four "lost causes", that makes 18 possible votes against the nuclear option from the Republicans. With all 44 Democrats and Jim Jeffords, the Senate's lone independent, likely to vote against, and Vice President Cheney on record as saying he'll support the nuclear option, the Democrats would need 6 out of the above 18 to vote with them. Will they get them? Frist says he will have the votes. But should we believe him? According to a recent New York Daily New Article, he doesn't have the votes, and it will really put a dent in his plans to be selected President by the Supreme Court in 2008:
Not looking too good for the cat torturer, is it?Sources told the Daily News that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist lacks the 50 votes he needs, which could be a blow to his presidential hopes. "I don't think Frist has the votes," a GOP aide said. "He's now in his own corner. If he doesn't have the votes, he's really screwed."
Robertson echoed that sentiment. "I just don't see him as a future President," Robertson said.
Abram
posted by Abram | 11:17 PM
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