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Cheney Fire Salvo Into Judicial Filibuster Battle
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-04-22
 SecurityProNews RSS Feed
Cheney fired his gun against Democrats today while addressing the National Republican Lawyers Association. The vice president's comments loom large as the first of Bush's nominees made it through the judicial committee.
Right now the Senate needs a 2/3 super-majority to pass judicial nominees onto the lifetime appointments. During Bush's last term, 10 judges failed to pass muster and were voted down by the delaying tactic known as a filibuster.
The filibuster is a time-tested technique utilized by both parties over the centures the august Senate has existed. Essentially, the side on the down side will continue to speak until they basically where out the other party. As a rule, filibusters aren't allowed on essential legislation like a budget for example but in the case of court nominees, it's allowed.
The current Republican plan is to change that should Democrats attempt to filibuster to one of Bush's originally failed nominations. The filibuster technique wouldn't be allowed on judicial nominations. A simple up or down vote would occur and a simple majority would be all that's needed.
Cheney said he will cast his vote if that's what's need to stop the procedural roadblock to the get the administration's nominees through.
The decision about how to proceed will be made by the Republican leadership in the Senate. But if the Senate majority decides to move forward and if the issue is presented to me in my elected office as president of the Senate and presiding officer, I will support bringing those nominations to the floor for an up or down vote," Cheney said.
This plan has been called the "NUCLEAR OPTION".
Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, has challenged that option and threatened in a letter to slow the Senate to a crawl should the Republicans institute this "Nuclear Option" by challenging every single bill they receive and any options that come to speed up passage would be discarded a few exceptions like say the budget.
It would seem that if Senator Republican Leader Bill Frist pushes the button on the "Nuclear Option", then the Senate will go to war.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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