The Filibuster: 'Extraordinary Circumstances'

Well, the Republicans didn't have to go nuclear to get what they wanted.

In a dramatic reach across party lines, Senate centrists sealed a compromise Monday night that cleared the way for confirmation of many of President Bush's stalled judicial nominees, left others in limbo and preserved venerable filibuster rules.

Basically, there will be up or down votes for all of Bush's nominees but two (for now), and Democrats can only use the filibuster in 'extreme circumstances.' This is a phrase any lawyer worth his salt could drive a Mack truck through. Kos has the actual signed deal here.

What is an extreme circumstance? In a statement after releasing the agreement, John McCain said "we will try to do everything in our power to prevent filibusters in the future." If Republicans consider a candidate not 'extreme' enough for a filibuster, what prevents them from going nuclear then? And if Priscilla Owens, who is the lowest-rated judge on the Texas Supreme Court (according to the Houston Bar Association), isn't filibuster-worthy, then who is? This is a woman who even White House counsel Alberto Gonzales accused of "judicial activism" and who some accuse of being responsible for the death of a 22-year-old quadriplegic. Plainly, a bipartisan deal allowing this woman a job for life deciding our futures isn't the gem moderates claim it to be.

What's to stop Bush from nominating Owen for the Supreme Court, now that she's been deemed worthy by moderates? This deal stinks. Democrats should've stood up and voted. Either they would have remained standing with the filibuster intact, and stronger, or they would have gone down against a gang of rascals who don't have the heart to tell America the truth about what they're doing to the courts.

Santorum: Using Hitler for Color

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has clarified his accusation that Democrats are acting like Hitler when they protect the 200-plus-years-old democratic tradition of the filibuster.

"My point was that it is preposterous for someone to trample a well-established principle, and then accuse his opponents of acting unlawfully when they try to reestablish that principle," Santorum said. "Nevertheless, it was a mistake and I meant no offense."

Santorum says he just wanted to "dramatize" the argument. He didn't mean to provoke offense by comparing Democrats to Hitler? This man's now not only appalling to Americans, Democrats, and his own party -- but also Nazis, who are probably yearning for the days when Hitler had power to offend.

Santorum's Shame

The filibuster has been an American institution for over 100 years. It was Jimmy Stewart's tool in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," the classic tale of the little guy fighting against big corruption, made while America braced for the Nazi menace's onslaught. Now Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has disgraced his country and his party by comparing Democrats to Hitler:

THE AUDACITY OF SOME MEMBERS TO STAND UP AND SAY, HOW DARE YOU BREAK THIS RULE. IT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF ADOLF HITLER IN 1942 "I'M IN PARIS. HOW DARE YOU INVADE ME. HOW DARE YOU BOMB MY CITY? IT'S MINE."

It doesn't matter than Republicans have used the filibuster before, or that Democrats have approved of far more of Bush's nominees than Republicans did of Clinton's. This is taking partisan hackery to a whole new level. Crooks and Liars video here. Swing State Project's roll call here.

Frist to America: Do as I say, not as I do

It turns out that Republican Senate leader Bill Frist, who leads the charge to go nuclear and do away with the institution of filibuster in the Senate, voted in 2000 to filibuster one of Clinton's judicial appointments. Not only is Frist wrong on this issue, he's a hypocrite. Which is all the more reason we need Mr. Smith in Washington.

John Bolton and Lincoln Chafee's right uppercut

Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee's got a bit of an identity problem. As a New England Republican, he has frequently broken ranks with the divisive far-right-wingers who currently run his party. But there comes a time in every politician's life when he must fall in line with the party or face the possibility of losing support. Now the time is here.

In the fight over John Bolton, Bush's proposed U.N. ambassador, Chafee has stood on the fence. "I wish this wasn't the nominee to the United Nations," Chafee said in April. But the Republican sheepdogs have gathered the stragglers, and Chafee's jumped off the fence. The senator from Rhode Island, who happens to be up for re-election next year, has sided with Bush. If Chafee votes for Bolton, Rhode Island will remember in 2006.

Santorum cyber school case continues

Pennsylvania tax-payers are still trying to figure out, or at least paying lawyers to figure out, whether Senator Rick Santorum did anything inappropriate by having his kids use Penn Hills School District cash to access an online charter school while the family lived in Virginia.

Santorum and his wife, Karen, removed their children from the cyber school last fall after questions were raised about their residency. At the time, Santorum said they would home-school their children, which they had done previously.

The Santorums own a Penn Hills home but spend most of their time at a home they own in Virginia.

Under state law, a school district must pay a fee set by the state for each resident who attends a charter school.

I'm no fan of Santorum, but it seems fair that if school money comes from property taxes, and the family owns a house in the county, it shouldn't matter where the kids access their online charter school from.