As the old canard says, if you can piss off the left wing and right wing equally, you’re a moderate. By that measure, the McCain 14 are moderates, as conservatives are up in arms that not all of the ten filibustered/threatened nominees are guaranteed an up or down vote. Liberals are apoplectic that the three most offensive (to them) nominees will get a confirmation vote. That you’ve equally offended those at both extremes doesn’t mean you’ve done a good thing, however, and this compromise is hardly a solution to the dispute.
From where I sit, the agreement was less about moderate compromise and more about doing what the Senate does best, avoiding confrontation. It’s the most passive-aggressive place in America. Senators have this view of themselves as being politicians above politics, which mostly means a place where officeholders should be above criticism, free to make deals in back rooms, away from the light of public observation. And this is the classic cigars-in-the-back-room deal: 3 nominees get votes, a couple more get thrown to the wolves, and the entire operation rests on the thin tendril of good faith and "extraordinary circumstances." Does anyone really expect that the Democrats won’t filibuster a Supreme Court nominee they don’t like but know will win confirmation? Extraordinary is, after all, in the eye of the beholder? Is ideology an extraordinary circumstance. That these three nominees get votes would indicate that any nominee to their left shouldn’t be filibustered on ideology, but Congress’ good faith and a buck might buy you a burger at McDonald’s.
Much hand-wringing was avoided about the tradition of the senate, the filibuster and protection of minority rights. Jimmy Stewart notwithstanding, the filibuster adds little to the deliberative nature of the upper chamber. That Delaware gets the same number of votes as California does more to protect the rights of the minority than does the filibuster. That Senators stand for election less frequently than do Presidents does more for deliberation than does the filibuster. Given that filibustering Senators don’t need to do much actual speaking means it has even less effect. I’d love to see the dinosaur go, not just for appointments, but for legislation, too. The ultimate protector of the minority is, after all, the ballot box. If voters don’t like what GOP control of government results in, they can vote in a new Congress in 2006 and a new President in 2008.
May 25th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Yeah, that whole load of crap about “protecting the rights of the minority–in Congress” galls me no end. The Bill of Rights protects the rights of individuals who are in the minority. There’s no provision–nor should there be–for protecting the rights of a minority party. That’s the “fallout” of our system of elections: convince enough people to vote for you, or you die a political death.