Word: filibusterer
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Given the harsh reality of today’s political climate, the Democrats are justified in their use of the filibuster in blocking judicial nominations. Extreme politics calls for extreme countermeasures. Only through the use of the filibuster can the Democrats attempt to force compromise and preserve some figment of...
I agree that Republicans should not pursue the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules so that judicial nominees cannot be filibustered. Once the filibuster is eliminated for confirmation, the party in power will likely extend this practice to every “important?...
Democrats articulated well the up-or-down vote principle in the late 1990s when President Clinton’s nominees faced Republican obstruction, but with the tables turned seem to have forgotten it. One of the chief obstructionists, Patrick Leahy D-VT, said in 1998: “I would...
Worse still, the tactics of Leahy, Harkin and others go far beyond what the GOP did under Clinton’s tenure. Republicans certainly did stall floor votes on nominees in ways that can only be described as undemocratic, but they never ventured beyond well-established delay procedures that majority...
Filibuster supporters may claim that they are acting only to prevent ideologically extreme candidates from attaining lifetime appointments, but the action serves only to further politicize the judicial branch and increase partisan bitterness. The nuclear option reared its ugly head when special interest groups began distributing lists targeting nominees as...