Irkutsk - Russian Federation
Unknown City - Unknown Country
Portland - United States
Dunedin - New Zealand
Reid defends Dems’ fight over judges
- – - – - – - – - – - -
By Jesse J. Holland
April 9, 2005 | WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Saturday that the fight over President Bush’s judicial nominees is really a battle between Democrats who believe in checks and balances and Republicans who want everything their way.
The GOP has threatened to change the Senate rules to ban filibusters of judicial nominees, which Democrats have used to block 10 Bush nominees.
“When it comes down to it, stripping away these important checks and balances is about the arrogance of those in power who want to rewrite the rules so that they can get their way,” Reid, D-Nev., said in his party’s weekly radio address.
The Republican plan has been dubbed the “nuclear option” because some say it would blow up Senate relations. Some supporters call it the “constitutional option” because they say forcing confirmation votes will return the Senate to its constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on judicial nominees.
Reid has threatened to retaliate by slowing down or stopping Senate business through procedural maneuvers.
While the fight is technically over the internal rules of the Senate, Reid said it is still important. “This isn’t about some arcane procedures of the Senate. It is about protecting liberty and our limited government,” he said.
Without the judicial filibuster, “the U.S. Senate becomes merely a rubber stamp for the president,” Reid said. “It would mean that one political party — be it Republicans today or Democrats tomorrow — gets to have all the say over our nation’s highest courts.”
Reid also targeted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in his remarks. While not identifying him by name, Reid said there was a “Republican leader threatening judges who protect our rights and corrupting our government by running roughshod over the ethics committee to protect himself.”
DeLay, R-Texas, suggested an impeachment case could made against judges who rebuffed Congress’ will in the Terri Schiavo case. Congress ordered the federal courts to review the decisions of state judges who turned down her parents’ efforts to keep her alive, but federal judges all the way up to the Supreme Court held up those decisions. “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior,” DeLay said when Schiavo died.
The House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times last year, and new questions have been raised in recent weeks about his overseas travel.
With his blessing, Republican leaders have remade the House ethics rules and the committee that reprimanded him, inserting allies and policies more favorable to his circumstances.
“Our children know that you can’t change the rules just to get your way,” Reid said. “I think it’s time that Washington Republicans remembered those truths
End of article
The preceeding article is from Salon.com what follows is an attempt at reasoning…and attacks on my mother’s polictical and religious beliefs. These are the people that you are supporting! It IS all there. Just open your eyes and stop listening to your church. Listen to your heart. Activists Judges have helped this country shed slavery, segregation, Poll taxes. Etc. These people are the one’s who take modern dilemmas’ and apply the constitution to them. It is not right for the religious right to impose their judeo-christen ideology on the rest of the nation. You know that the rules are in place to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Ya thats right. The tyranny of the majority. Which ever party is in the minority. Now the repuges are trying to change the rules so no matter what they can destroy this country as they see fit. Now how about conservation. I guess that you don’t care what shape you leave the earth in for your grandchildren or great-grand children. Because if we exploit every last resource left on this planet we all will be truly screwed. I guess that we can hang out in caves waiting for the rapture. Which by the way will never come because it was made up by men to maintain their power over those who didn’t read etc. These people are short sighted greedy bastards. Remember all that crap about Clinton? It was all a lie to bring ‘em down. It succeeded in destroying our chances of getting universal health care. And what happened to that extortion money that the republican congress extracted from the tobacco companies….huh? Evaporated like the 9 billion that can’t be found in Iraq. Wake up and smell the corruption. YOU ARE BEING USED!!!!!