Democrats abuse filibuster: Block 4% of Bush judicial lunatics.

GOP May Target Use of Filibuster
Senate Democrats Want To Retain the Right to Block Judicial Nominees
By Helen Dewar and Mike Allen, December 13, 2004, The Washington Post

As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down from the Supreme Court soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.

Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.

… At issue is a seldom used, complicated and highly controversial parliamentary maneuver in which Republicans could seek a ruling from the chamber's presiding officer, presumably Vice President Cheney, that filibusters against judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Under this procedure, it would take only a simple majority or 51 votes to uphold the ruling -- far easier for the 55-member GOP majority to get than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster or the 67 votes needed to change the rules under normal procedures.

It would then take only 51 votes to confirm a nominee, ensuring approval of most if not all of Bush's choices. …

OK then, if this last check on judicial appointment is removed, there will be no curbs on the Administration’s power to appoint anyone to lifetime positions on the Federal bench. In Clinton’s eight years, the Republicans blocked an astonishing 167 or 20% of his judicial nominations. Senator Frist now has his shorts in a knot about the Democrats blocking 10 in four years. This is “intolerable?” I don’t think so.

“Dear Leader,” with his 51% mandate, wants to stock the court with 100% right wing ideologues, not moderate slightly right of center judges or gawd save us, someone who could be construed as even at the center or a little left of center.

Remember, Dear Leader’s ideal judges are Scalia and Thomas; those two men are the models for the Justices he says he’d appoint. This concept should have Americans shaking in their boots. Most of the damage this administration will cause in the next four years can be repaired in a reasonable period of time, hopefully less than a generation. The damage done to the nation by Bush courts will take several generations to correct assuming we are ever able to recover.

I think we should be very afraid.