Frist Will Challenge Filibuster Deal

by Gary Boatwright, Tue May 24, 2005 at 07:28:21 PM EDT

Posted at Daily Kos, Frist to Ignore Nuclear Deal, File for Cloture on Myers. It's already up to 172 comments, so my browser bogs down, but the original story is at Thinking Progress, Ignoring Deal, Frist to File for Cloture on Myers:

In the deal struck yesterday evening, negotiators agreed that two judicial nominees - William G. Myers and Henry Saad - "will be filibustered or withdrawn."

Last night, Frist indicated he would abide by the agreement:

Mr. President, a lot has been said about the uniqueness of this body. And, indeed, our Senate is unique. And we all, as individuals and collectively as a body, have a role to play in ensuring its cherished nature remains intact.
And, indeed, as demonstrated by tonight's agreement and by the ultimate implementation of that agreement, we have done just that.

That seems pretty straight forward. What a difference a good nights sleep and some irate phone calls from Dr. Dobson make:

But Congress Daily PM reports that Frist has other ideas for later in the week:

Senate Majority Leader Frist will file for cloture on President Bush's nomination of William Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later this week, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill, wasting no time in testing the resolve of 14 Republican and Democratic senators who forced at least a temporary halt to the battle over Democratic filibusters of President Bush's judicial picks.

That didn't take long.

That's the whole story folks. You can read the comments at both places yourselves. Are we having fun yet?

Nothing more to add in Extended Diary

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Parker posted this

over on the Reep disunity thread (the first one). But if you follow the link to the floor statement that ThinkProgress cites, you can read:

"I have had the opportunity to review the agreement signed by the Senator from Virginia, the Senator from Arizona, the Senator from Nebraska, and eleven other Senators -- an agreement that I've reviewed but to which I am not a party." { . . . }

"It is a shame that well-qualified nominees identified by those twelve members are threatened still with not having the opportunity to have the merits of their nominations debated on the floor." { . . . }

"So I will continue to work with everything in my power to see that these judicial nominees also receive that fair, up or down vote that they deserve. But it is not in this agreement."

So yeah, he's going to keep pushing, but no, this isn't a reversal on his part.

The Center for American Progress does this kind of thing occasionally, probably more out of haste than any intent to misrepresent. I still enjoy their newsletter, though.

by catastrophile 2005-05-24 07:46PM | 0 recs

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Frist isn't part of the deal

(my internet connection is really dragging. My replies may be a while coming)

It doesn't matter if Frist is part of the deal. He at the very least condoned the agreement last night. He doesn't have to abide by it. Nobody who is not part of the agreement is bound by it.

What's significant is that Frist has decided to challenge the resolve of the Republicans who are part of the deal. He's going rigtht at McCain and Lindsay and Warner. Who's in charge? Who has the clout?

Will Frist be able to break the will of the moderates who signed the agreement? Or will he just get their hackles up? Is Frist expressing the will of the entire Republican caucus? Don't you think there are other Republicans besides the 7 who signed the agreement who would rather work on legislation that would do their constituents some good?

There are all kinds of tough questions Frist is going to have to answer. Harry Reid and the Democrats have it easy. A deal is a deal. We are keeping our word and we expect the Republican who signed the agreement to keep their word.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-05-24 08:16PM | 0 recs

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Frist

Frist could very quickly make himself a joke by repeatedly filing (and failing to win) cloture. He looks more like a mule than a Princeton Tiger at this point.

by David Kowalski 2005-05-24 07:50PM | 0 recs

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Pull up a chair

Have some popcorn

It's going to be a long, long show.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-05-24 07:57PM | 0 recs

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Is everybody sick of the filibuster yet?

If political activists are burned out on the filibuster, imagine what the reaction of average Americans is going to be. Are you kidding me? I'm really looking forward to what the time table is going to be. Will the judges that were agreed to get a vote first? Doesn't there have to be some sort of debate even if they get an up or down vote?

I don't know if this is going to make the morning papers or not, but if it's true, sometime this week Americans are going to wake up and start screaming WTF? Are you kidding me?

How can McCain, Warner and Lindsay back down without a fight? They'd look like total idiots and their career would be over. Their word wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on. Now Frist is going to try to lean on them to tear up the agreement with absolutely no provocation from the Democrats?

There is no justification or rationalization for this that will make sense. Every editorial page in the country will say Frist is bat shit crazy. Well, maybe not the WSJ and the Washington Times. There's no way thisis going to fly.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-05-24 09:10PM | 0 recs

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Sick of the filibuster?

Hell yeah. And as far as the national media is concerned, this seems to be over, sorry, no explosions, no mangled bodies, go gawk at something else.

I expect Frist will probably go on as if there were no agreement. He's got his marching orders, from the theocrats and the White House: no compromise, don't back down. Besides, even if it's just a formality, I think they'll want the appropriate votes to be on the record so they can use them come campaign season: Senator So-and-so sided with Dems against Gee-Dub's nominees. Do you want him representing you?

Anyway, Myers was specifically not part of the deal, one way or the other. Agreement Part 1B: "Signatories make no commitment to vote for or against cloture on the following nominees: William Myers (9th Circuit) and Henry Saad (6th Circuit)." I don't know what Myers did to get lumped in with FBI Boy, but he's on his own here.

by catastrophile 2005-05-25 12:00AM | 0 recs

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Theocratic response confused:

The American Prospect's Tapped blog has an interesting catch by Sam Rosenfeld (which I've trimmed severely for brevity, so go read the whole thing):

Meanwhile, just what the hell is going on with the Family Research Council? This morning I got my daily FRC email, this one featuring Tony Perkins' predictably outraged statement on the deal, titled "An Ignoble Judicial Compromise":

The seven Republicans who participated in the deal need to explain what Republicans gained in this "compromise" that they did not already have--other than the fickle admiration of the mainstream media.

Basically, it was your typical and predictable religious-right fire-breathing, plus another explicit commendation of Frist that I was dutifully going to note alongside Dobson's. But, heading on over to the FRC's site, I saw that this is the Tony Perkins statement that's actually been posted:

Today's agreement to proceed to votes on the majority of President Bush's filibustered appellate nominees represents a long-overdue rejection of a liberal minority's outrageous charges of extremism and unfitness against these outstanding men and women.

That's a lot of backpedalling for one day. Not only did the agreement go from "ignoble" to "long-overdue," but the Frist commendation went from muted to slavish.

Guess he got the memo: Always declare victory.

by catastrophile 2005-05-25 01:38AM | 0 recs

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He is just playing politics

The fallout from the right is greater than many thought it would be. If he brings Myers up for cloture he will lose if he invoke the nuclear option this soon he will lose also, but he is trying to appeal to those on the right he is at least trying. It may work, but I do not know.

by THE MODERATE 2005-05-25 04:13AM | 0 recs

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Re: He is just playing politics

if he invoke the nuclear option this soon he will lose also

THAT WAS MY POINT... it will unbind this pathetic deal LIEberman sold us into.

by Parker 2005-05-25 04:36AM | 0 recs

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Re: He is just playing politics

Parker it will nto unbind it the deal will hold, for now.

by THE MODERATE 2005-05-25 04:42AM | 0 recs