White House press secretary Scott McClellan, traveling in Texas with Bush, said "our view is that Senate Democrats need to stop playing politics and give all judicial nominees an up or down vote."
"It's unprecedented, the steps they've gone to to prevent highly qualified judges from receiving simply an up or down vote on the floor of the United States Senate," he said.
When you say, "up or down vote," you imply that you'll be okay with that nominee being rejected by the Senate. You imply that you'll back off and take the hint. You imply that you'll use the extra debate period in the Senate to convince Senators in the minority to give an "up" vote.
So since you don't mean any of that, then stop saying "up or down vote." Instead, tell it like it is. You want to change the STRUCTURE of government to allow the executive branch to have complete control over the appointment of justices into the judiciary. You want to allow Senators to debate on everything EXCEPT for items involving the separation of powers. (and who knows, eventually you might get rid of all debate in the Senate)
When Dixiecrats filibustered civil rights legislation, they didn't get rid of the filibuster. Instead, they compelled the Dixiecrats to back down so the civil rights legislation would pass. And you know what? That was the right thing to do.
If you're convinced that your nominees are the CORRECT (and not just "right") choices, then convince the Democrats who don't agree. Despite what Karl Rove tells the rest of the world, Democrats aren't evil, and if you have a rational argument, then they'll back down. People voted for those Democrats. Respect Democracy and allow those Democrats to do the job that their constituents wanted them to do.
And *THEN* ask them for an "up or down vote." It'll make your nominees look much better to the rest of us (the public) if you can convince Democrats to vote for them without these nuclear tactics.
No comments:
Post a Comment