Word: optional
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...simple up-or-down vote, since Republicans have 55 Senate seats to their 44. Neutralizing the filibuster may sound like little more than a bit of parliamentary housekeeping, but, given the tactic's long tradition in the Senate, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott christened the move the "nuclear option." Frist ignited the fuse last week, bringing up the long-stalled nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit. Ostensibly, the fight is over a handful of long-blocked appellate court nominations, but both sides acknowledge that it is really about how the Senate...
...there? "The whole idea of the Senate is that it's different from the House. The passions of the moment can cool here," says North Dakota Democrat Kent Conrad, one of the Senators who was trying to come up with a deal to avert the vote on the nuclear option. If Republicans can manage to end the filibuster of judicial nominees, Democrats warn, it is only a matter of time before they end the filibuster on other issues as well...
...voters don't like what they are seeing now, they aren't going to be any happier with what happens next if the nuclear option passes. Filibustering is not the only tool the minority has to slow business to a crawl. The Senate last week got a taste of how harsh nuclear winter might be when Democrats invoked an obscure procedural rule to cancel all committee meetings, where the bulk of Senate business gets done. They have also threatened to require full Senate votes for even the most mundane business, a move that could put the brakes on the G.O.P...
Anxious to shore up sagging recruiting numbers, the U.S. Army says it will offer prospects a 15-month enlistment option, instead of the usual two- to six-year hitch they're currently asked to sign. But will the shorter stint really solve the Army's recruiting woes? For one thing, those 15 months come only after the recruit has completed basic and advanced individual training, which can take another three to six months depending on the job a recruit is headed for. Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University, argues the Army should make the commitment 15 months total...
...shorter enlistments may not be enough to attract students if the adventure still means combat in Iraq. The Army had "disappointing" results when it tried out its 15-month enlistment option in a pilot program over the past two years in 10 cities, said Major General Michael Rochelle, head of the Army Recruiting Command. He insists it was because the program wasn't advertised broadly. But even an aggressive marketing campaign by no means guarantees compensating for the shortfall of 6,600 enlistees so far this year, with next year looking not much better. Rochelle says the military is facing...