Catherine Crier has a show on Court TV. She recently spoke with Pat Buchanan about the nuclear option.
Crier: “The Republicans, the conservatives, have dominated the courts now for thirty years in this country, and certainly the Supreme Court, so we know we have Conservatives—but that doesn’t seem to be enough.”
Buchanan: “No, that is not enough.”
Crier: “Yeah, the Terri Shiavo case–those were conservative judges, and all of a sudden, we’re saying we want strict constructionists?”
Buchanan: “Exactly. Look, ten of the last twelve justices have been appointed by Republicans. Nixon gave us Blackmon, Gerry Ford gave us John Paul Stevens, Reagan gave us Kennedy and O’Conner, and (Bush Sr.) gave us David Sutter…”
Crier: “Those aren’t good enough?”
Buchanan: “They have been failures. The battle is over the Supreme Court. (It) has become a judicial dictatorship in this country. It dictates racial policy on quotas, affirmative action. It tells us we must have abortion on demand. It’s now into gay rights. It has become a super legislature. Control of it is more important tin the social culture war in America than control of Congress in the United States. That ultimately is what this is all about. The President has got to get those Supreme Court justices…and if that means breaking these ridiculous obstructionist filibusters, he ought to do it.”
Catherine points out that
The Christian right has portrayed themselves as victims long enough. Every Sunday morning, I have several national networks offering me salvation. Of course, I can always join Pat Robertson on the 700 Club. This fundamentalist voice dominates talk radio, and cable talk shows have elevated dramatically their agenda in the public eye. Christian music is rockin’ and the Left Behind series outsells every other fiction book on the market. A new megachurch (defined as one attracting more than 2,000 members weekly) spring up every two days in this country according to the founder of Church Growth Today. Just how much do they want? They want it all.
There is no compromising with these people. But spineless Democrats continue to negotiate.
If the compromise measure passes, six Democrats will vote for the cloture motion and it will pass with 61 votes. If Frist then moves for his point of order, six Republicans will vote against it. It will lose, and the right to filibuster will be retained, but only for the duration of the 109th Congress – until 2006.
If the compromise succeeds, there will be up or down votes on the seven judges previously rejected: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, Idaho lawyer William Myers and Michigan nominees David McKeague, Richard Griffin and Henry Saad. I’m hearing that the compromise calls for only William Myers and Henry Saad to be rejected.
Frist would have gone “nuclear” well before now if he had the support he needs, which tells us he didn’t have the votes before and he may very well not have them now. The already-thin ice, in other words, is starting to crack.
If Frist brings the nuclear option to the floor and fails, his ability to lead is effectively over. He’ll have taken on the biggest risk for a Senate Majority Leader in recent history and, despite 55 Republican lawmakers in his caucus and the enthusiastic rabid support of the party base, Frist will have failed spectacularly. He’s already a lame-duck leader, but if the nuclear-option strategy falls apart, Frist may have to give up his leadership post.
Frist also can’t stall; the GOP base has told him in no uncertain terms that it’s now or never.
What about the possible six-by-six compromise, you ask? That, too, would be a disaster for Frist, not only because it would represent the failure of his nuclear-option strategy, but also because it would circumvent him altogether. The buzz is the deal isn’t going to happen anyway, but if it does, it’s the worst of all worlds for Frist — the filibuster rule remains in tact, nominees get left behind, and his leadership looks inept. (I’m opposed to the six-by-six deal, but the humiliation it would bring Frist makes it look a little better in my eyes.)