The Clock Is Ticking

This just came in over the wires, via Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050520/ap_on_go_co/filibuster_fight;_ylt=AszFSjaQEVX4S7ceSQlcdCes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2MTQ3MTFjBHNlYwN0cw--
WASHINGTON - Majority Republicans set a test vote for Tuesday on the appeals court nomination of Priscilla Owen as the Senate edged one step closer to a showdown over President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees and the fate of filibuster rules.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, acted on behalf of Majority Leader Bill Frist Friday in scheduling the procedural vote after Democrats twice refused to fix a time for a final vote on Owen's confirmation to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The choreographed maneuver unfolded as the Senate concluded a third straight day of debate over Owen, a Texas Supreme Court nominee whom Democrats argue is outside the judicial mainstream.

Under the Senate's filibuster rules, Owen's backers need 60 votes to prevail next Tuesday. Barring an agreement on a compromise in the interim, they are expected to fall short.

That, in turn, is expected to prompt Frist to seek a vote on his call for a ban on filibusters on appeals court and Supreme Court nominees.

Owen is one of 10 appeals court nominees whom Democrats blocked during Bush's first term. The president has since renominated seven of them, and Democrats have again vowed to filibuster.

"If we were just permitted to cast a vote, a bipartisan majority would confirm these nominees today," Cornyn said. "This really amounts to a veto. A partisan minority has attempted to cast a veto of majority rights, bipartisan majority rights."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., countered: "This extralegal changing of the Senate rules will cause a permanent tear in the Senate fabric because it violates a deeply held American value — playing by the rules."

"Using an arbitray way — presiding officer ruling by fiat — will produce a deeply embittered and divided Senate because it tears at the heart of the way we operate," Levin said.

With the showdown looming, a group of compromise-minded senators is working on a potential agreement that could clear the way for confirmation of many of Bush's stalled judicial nominees, scuttle some and preserve existing filibuster rules. Their talks are scheduled to resume on Monday.

The clock started 4 minutes ago, and is running for 48, as per the rules that I cited this morning. Tuesday is the day that this issue comes to a head. One way or another, and it doesn't matter. Either way this ends.

We either get the judges through, with their duly-deserved, simple majority, up-or-down vote, OR we don't, and we have a list of GOP names that just got cut off from the base. Those people have the rest of today, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to do some thinking and soul-searching. And we'll see if they figure this out when they're called to go on the record on Tuesday. (And yes, abstaining is just as bad as voting against their constituents.)

If they can't seem to figure out which way is the proper course of action, and they side with the Democrats (of which Lieberman counted himself out of the GOP camp on this issue today), then they're done. Finished are McCain’s hopes for the presidency; Hagel’s are burned up quicker than a brushfire. The party’s base won't support either man from that point forward. And I seriously doubt the reelection bids of Chaffee or Snowe will succeed; both of which face that prospect in 2006.

Yes, some people in the party had better do some serious thinking this weekend.

Publius II