And so Reid and the Democrats change Senate rules by breaking the rules. But here’s the problem. Well, two problems. First of all, the skirmish that provoked Democrats into taking the nuclear option wasn’t over executive branch appointees. It was over federal nominees to the appellate bench. These are lifetime appointments, and Republicans are concerned that the president is trying to pack the courts with ideologically simpatico jurists. Why wouldn’t they be? Obama brags about it. “We are remaking the courts,” he tells liberal audiences. The second aspect of this that Republicans find hard to swallow—as they should—is the Democrats’ hypocrisy. Perhaps hypocrisy is too mild a word. When George W. Bush was president and Democrats were in the Senate minority, they did everything they could to sabotage his judicial appointments. They used stalling tactics, the filibuster, and outright character assassination. Obama took great pride in appointing a Hispanic to the Supreme Court, but Bush wanted to do it first. He couldn’t even get the brilliant Miguel Estrada appointed to the D.C. Court of Appeals—the same panel that Democrats have now gone nuclear over.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 22:28:01 +0000
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