Remember that mantra from the past eight years? At any rate, the Democrats finally broke the filibuster on one judicial nominee:
Senate Democrats broke a GOP filibuster Tuesday against a district judge first nominated eight months ago by President Barack Obama for a seat on the federal appeals court.
The Senate voted 70-29 to end debate over the nomination of Indiana Judge David Hamilton, who was tapped by Obama in March to fill a vacancy on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton was Obama’s first judicial nominee.
The full Senate is now expected to move forward quickly on a final vote on the nomination.
I’m as shocked as you are that the Democrats fought this. In other news, even the media is starting to notice the hypocrisy:
In 2005, Republicans spoke for days about the insult of the judicial filibuster, calling it unconstitutional. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, now the Senate Republican leader, said in 2005 of the Democrats: “For the first time in 214 years they’ve changed the advise and consent responsibilities to advise and obstruct.”
North Carolina’s Richard Burr, like many other Republicans, said the debate was about “fairness” and “about principle and …. allowing judicial nominees an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.”
And the man who is now the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, contended that “the Republican leadership have been consistent on this issue even when it was not to their political benefit to do so. We have opposed judicial filibusters and have not supported them.”
Imagine that- taking what the Republicans have said in the past, show that what they are doing today is completely at odds with their past statements, and point out they are hypocrites. Have these guys been watching the Daily Show to figure out how this reporting thing is done?
Violet
Maybe the collapse of newspapers is making them nervous enough to do some real reporting?
Nah…I’ll go with The Daily Show theory. Makes much more sense.
Mike G
This is timely, from The Onion:
Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be
“Right there in the preamble, the authors make their priorities clear: ‘one nation under God,'” said Mortensen, attributing to the Constitution a line from the Pledge of Allegiance, which itself did not include any reference to a deity until 1954. “Well, there’s a reason they put that right at the top.”…Mortensen’s passion for safeguarding the elaborate fantasy world in which his conception of the Constitution resides is greatly respected by his likeminded friends and relatives, many of whom have been known to repeat his unfounded assertions verbatim when angered.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_man_passionate_defender_of
feebog
Damn Librul Media
Genine
I should hope so. If I were really a journalist, I wouldn’t want a “fake news” program to do better reporting than me. I hope the The Daily Show is really having an impact.
Notorious P.A.T.
THAT’S not what journalists are for! One side says the Earth is round, the other says the Earth is ham sandwich, and the journalist reports both opinions.
El Cid
Sounds kind of radical. Are you sure it’s the job of a journalist to do something more than report dutifully whatever Republicans tell you?
Notorious P.A.T.
@Mike G:
Awesome )
Leelee for Obama
@Mike G: In the future, I predict that The Onion will be viewed by people as a real newspaper. Of course, I also liked the Bill and Ted premise that rock music would be considered a valid basis for governing.
GregB
Perhaps it is time for a Jon Stewart Award for investigative journalism?
-G
WereBear
@Leelee for Obama: Rock music is a more valid basis for governing than what the right wing is using now.
Kyle
Also from The Onion:
U.S. Deports Lou Dobbs
CNN Host Had Been Living Illegally In Country Since 1961
Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, alias “Lou Dobbs,” is escorted by DHS agents to the airport to be sent back to Mexico.
WANTAGE, NJ—Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who for the last 48 years had been living illegally in the United States under the name ‘Lou Dobbs’.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/u_s_deports_lou_dobbs
Max
Speaking of The Daily Show…
VP Joey B is tonight’s guest.
I lurve him. Howard Stern did a great bit this am talking about him vs. S.Palin. Needless to say, Stern’s a fan of the Biden.
PeakVT
Someone needs to take the Senate rule book and set it on fire.
Mike G
“When searching the former newscaster’s house in Wantage, NJ, Border Patrol agents found several boxes of horded food stamps, a fully-equipped stolen-car chop shop, a 350-deck DVD pirating warehouse, and a garment facility where up to 100 illegal workers put in 85-hour weeks producing knockoff purses, shoes, and other counterfeit clothing.
Many younger members of the Border Patrol team that participated in Wednesday’s raid said it was “an honor and a privilege” to help deport Dominguez, as years of listening to tirades against illegal immigrants on Lou Dobbs Tonight had been a major factor in their choice of career.”
LOL!
calipygian
The “man” who learned journalmalism from watching mommy keep track of where President Clinton’s cock was at all times would disagree with your assessment of the Daily Show’s journalistic chops.
Somehow Doughy Pantload considers his mom’s obsession with Clinton’s dick “legitimate journalism”.
Explains a lot.
JenJen
@Max: Hopefully Jon Stewart will make sure the interview is “kind of a light-hearted, fun” discussion about the challenges of being a working dad. (h/t Palin)
Morbo
@WereBear: Whoa now, let’s not go nuts. We don’t need repeats of Rand Paul reciting Rush lyrics to break out across the country.
The Populist
I am LOVING this. I tell my rightie friend all the time about the stuff the GOP used to argue over when they ran the congress. I would tell him about their whines that the Dems would filibuster and block their judicial nominees. I tell him that the GOP wanted to nuke that option (gee, I wish they would have!).
He could care less. The bulk of hard right types only care about being in charge and running the show. They do NOT love America, they DO NOT like the American people and they are the biggest hypocrites of them all.
Guys like Rangel are scummy in their shady business dealings, but at least Charlie votes his conscience on things. When it comes to the right, pro-life means you are own your own when you are born, dirty, kinky sex is not allowed unless you are a member of congress and they like to talk about helping people by using the free markets yet they could give a shit about the small businessman and defend the likes of Ze, Halliburton, Wal Mart and Cigna.
danimal
The principle, of course, is ‘whatever argument is convenient for the GOP today. It’s really the only principle they live by.
GregB
Now we will hear how it is like a dictatorship because the President should only nominate people who pass the DeMint sniff test.
What a world.
-G
calipygian
The Populist:
Fixt
Demo Woman
@JenJen: And if Stewart doesn’t hopefully Biden will whine on Oprah. (not)
Poor John, He thinks the liberal media will learn from Stewart. Ha Ha Ha
calipygian
@GregB:
Nominate people who pass the DeMint sniff test and we WILL be living in a Taliban-style dictatorship.
The Populist
Yet they don’t. When it comes to the NEWS REPORTING part of these networks, Fox tells the mouth breathers that Obama is a socialist 24/7 by allowing opinions to be spoken during the newshours, MSNBC will criticize Obama but never drag him through the mud and CNN claims to see both sides yet they still skew right in their reporting.
Max
Did anyway see Maddow last night where Sherrod Brown (who I crush on) was talking about how if the GOP/Lieberman want to filibuster HCR, the dems are going to make them actually do it, and they will have to have someone on the floor 24/7 to avoid the vote.
Xmas comes early!
The Populist
Calypigian: I forgot the diapers. We know righties LOVE being kinky with diapers.
The Populist
I did and I cheered. My wife thought i was nuts.
Keith G
@John (top):
Just once before I die (a ways hence, I hope), I want to see a handful of Dems in Congress (ie Senate) break out the nunchucks and brassnucks and kick some varmint GOP puntang.
So tired of winning the argument with the better idea, but losing it in the back alley to the conservathugs.
The Populist
It’s the old ‘do whatever it takes to win’ stance.
JenJen
@Demo Woman: I swear to gawd, I was laughing my ass off when Sarah! made that claim on Oprah. It was one of those moments where Sarah wasn’t being stupid; Sarah was lying.
El Cid
Jim DeMint, R-SC, who is apparently Acting Secretary of State for Jackass Affairs in Latin America, for whom the State Department under Hillary Clinton basically reversed its position on the Honduran accords it, our State Department, had just negotiated, which are now no more than a joke and a waste of time and Jim DeMint can now relax that the coup government assholes will run their shitty ‘elections’ and be recognized by the U.S. without having restored the legal and elected government they threw out, as was the agreement the U.S. itself negotiated.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jim DeMint, 2nd most powerful person in the U.S. State Department. Maybe.
LorenzoStDuBois
I hate to say it, but the problem with exposing hypocrisy, half the time is says as much about the accuser as the accused. How many here were upset about Dems filibustering Republican nominees back in the day? Probably very few. Sorry, but I think this is a double-edged sword.
Demo Woman
@LorenzoStDuBois: You are just so correct… Bush wanted Alito and Roberts and the Democratic party filibustered both candidates. In fact they filibustered most of his appointments. You are just so right.
debit
@LorenzoStDuBois: I think the filibuster is a legitimate tool, but like any tool, it can be abused. Rachel has reported a couple of times that the republicans in the last two years have used the filibuster more times than other senates have in the last decade combined.
This is false equivalency, IMO. Let the Dems lock republicans out of committee meetings. Let them be banished to the basement and forced to caucus in the middle of the night. Let them be treated just like they treated the democrats when they were in the minority and then we can talk.
Midnight Marauder
@LorenzoStDuBois:
And I wonder why that would be the case? Surely, it couldn’t be because those two situations you’re attempting to equate aren’t anywhere close to being similar or equal in nature?
No, surely, that could not be the case.
danimal
@LorenzoStDuBois: I would have gladly taken the deal and suffered through a few Bush appointees if it meant the end of the filibuster. Take a look back in liberal blog archives, including BJ, there was a lot of debate on the issue. Yglesias was especially vocal on the issue, IIRC.
LorenzoStDuBois
Christ, the sarcasm level here is off the charts. I’m not an expert in this procedural stuff, but I just wanted to throw it out there. Just seems to me like in ’05, GOP was all “up or down vote, bitches”, and dems were like, “your nominees are total nazis and we have the right to block them.”
Now GOP is being hypocrites for blocking guys. But dems are not being hypocrites for saying they shouldn’t? JUST TELL ME HOW I”M WRONG INSTEAD OF BEING SARCASTIC.
Thank you sir.
calipygian
@LorenzoStDuBois: Yeah, they sure filibustered the shit out of Roberts and Alito.
And that poor Harriet Miers – filibustered to death!
gf120581
What’s most extraordinary about this is that David Hamilton was picked as Obama’s first judicial nominee because he was an unassuming, non-controversial moderate who would presumably breeze through confirmation. And now, eight months later, he is finally about to get approved.
This, if nothing else, should show anyone still harboring delusions of “bipartisanship” needs to enter reality. The current GOP only is good for one thing; saying “No” and blocking everything they can.
clonecone
“But you can’t compromise a Presidential nomination. It’s yes or no. So filibusters on nominations are an abuse of our function under the Constitution to advise and consent.”
– Chuck Grassley
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/03/14/050314ta_talk_hertzberg
d0n camillo
@LorenzoStDuBois:
Lorenzo,
If you dislike sarcasm, man have you come to the wrong place.
Katie
Oh there’s no doubt in my mind that they are both being hypocritical, but it does seem like the republicans were much more vocal with the “up or down vote” thing than the dems were with the filibuster threats.
Beej
Yes. This has been SATSQ.
Nick
@LorenzoStDuBois: big difference being the Democrats didn’t filibuster every damn thing that came before them in the Senate, or even every nominee…only a few.
Mike
When the GOP controlled the Senate under Clinton, they would block his nominees (judicial and otherwise) by refusing to schedule confirmation hearings. So when under Bush they insisted that “everyone deserves an up or down vote”, you knew they were full of it. Not that I ever saw the MSM point this out, even once.
ET
Dana Milbank has a really snarky article “Filibusted” in the 11/18 WaPo basically calling Republican Senators hypocrites doing this great then/now thing.
Soprano2
When I heard that NPR report yesterday, my first thought was that the media is finally getting tired of watching Stewart kick their ass by doing the job they should be doing. I wish they’d take it to the next step, by confronting these assholes with recordings of their demand for an up or down vote for all presidential nominees, their belief that a president deserves to get the people he nominated regardless of how the other party feels about the nominee, etc. I won’t be holding my breath for that, though.
@LorenzoStDuBois: I can understand how you might think Dems are being hypocrites, but they didn’t block nominees for stupid reasons like working for ACORN for one month while in college, and ruling that a sectarian prayer at a government function violates the Constitution. Honestly when I heard the GOP’s “reasons” for this filibuster I thought how most people would hear that and think “huh”? Only hard-core Repubs would think working for ACORN for one month while in college is a reason to block someone from government service. It’s petty and unreasonable on the part of the Repubs.
Paul in KY
In case LorenzoStDoobie hasn’t got it yet:
The Democrats did NOT filibuster Roberts & Alisucko.