Man Bites Dog: The Democrats are not caving to GOP bullying on judicial appointments

After Republican leader Bill Frist threatened to employ the so-called nuclear option to get reactionary Bush nominees seated on the federal bench, the leader of the minority, Nevada Senator Harry Reid, showed spine uncharacteristic of a national Democrat by threatening to shut down the Senate.

Go, Harry.

Nothing currently before the upper chamber comes close to matching the importance of its role in advising on and consenting to the appointment of judges-for-life. Frist's intention to use the nuclear option -- in practice this would amount to asking Senate president Dick Cheney for a parliamentary ruling declaring filibusters unconstitutional -- left the Democrats no choice but to fight back.

As things stand now, it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster and call a question. Filibusters aren't easy -- you try speechifying for 18 hours -- and the potential political damage it can cause the perpetrators is enormous; a senator or group of senators must feel very strongly about an issue to attempt it, but it is an important defence against the tyranny of the majority.

The irony of the GOP position is that more judges were approved during Bush's first term than Clinton's. But whiners and crybabies that they are, the president and his right wing cohorts in the Senate are leading off the second inning with the same handful of hacks and idealogues they failed to get appointed in the first term. Radicalizing the courts is an important part of the neocon agenda; since in the darkest hours of night the Republican radicals have to know their days are numbered, they are pushing hard to get even the most extreme nominees approved now, while they can.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have to be prepared to go to any lengths, including shutting down the legislature, to protect the nation by preventing hack fanatics like William G. Myers -- he is openly hostile to your right to privacy and opposed to all legislation designed to protect civil liberties -- from spending the next 30 or 40 years wreaking havoc from the bench. The fact that Myers is probably also unqualified professionally for the job only makes his appointment nearly as ridiculous as it is dangerous.

The Senate does most of its work by consent; it only takes the withholding of consent by one member to throw sand in the wheels. "The majority," Reid warned Frist, "should not expect to receive cooperation from the minority in the conduct of Senate business." He promised the Democrats will help to move legislation "supporting our troops" and to keep the government running, but otherwise will refuse to facilitate actions "even on routine matters." In other words, unleash the nuclear option and there will be political devastation, indeed.

This is unusually tough talk coming from a Democractic leader, and all citizens, not just liberals, should be glad for it. It is just in moments such as these -- with one party dominating all branches of government -- that brakes on excesses by the majority are most needed. Republicans may not recall that for most of the last half of the 20th century they were in the same position the Democrats are now, but they must know that, probably sooner than later, the extremism and corruption that characterize this administration will bring its downfall. They may spend many decades ruing the day they stripped the minority of its limited defences.