The Deal

A deal was made last night in the Senate when Democrats agreed not to filibuster Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and Bill Pryor in exchange for sacrificing Henry Saad and William Myers. Why were these two Judges thrown to the wolves? Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said of Henry Saad

All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree there is a problem there.

In the worst kind of slime he refers to a confidential report and infers that something is seriously wrong without saying what it is. Is it as serious as Bolton’s meanness to a subordinate? Was it as petty as the charge of threat Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow leveled? In an e-mail to a supporter, Saad wrote of Stabenow,

This is the game they play. Pretend to do the right thing while abusing the system and undermining the constitutional process. Perhaps some day she will pay the price for her misconduct.

He mistakenly sent the e-mail not only to his supporter but to Stabenow's office.

William Myers’ problem is that he isn’t an environmentalist whacko. He even took the side of a rancher over BLM’s. One of the reasons we sold our ranch is that half of it was BLM owned and because of that it just wasn’t profitable. Also because of the BLM land we got a price less than half of what we could’ve had had it been all private. So this guy apparently leans toward businesses over Government bureaucracies. How evil. The point is these Judges are qualified, which is what advise and consent is supposed to be about, but they’re just not liberal enough.

The bigger question in my mind is why make the deal at all? Why not go nuclear and confirm all five? Maybe because RINOs Lincoln Chafee (RI), Olympia Snowe (Me.), and John McCain (Az.) wont support their President. Two more Senators break ranks and we don’t have the votes necessary. Fence sitters include Senators Chuck Hagel (Ne.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), John Warner (Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Ak.), and Arlen Specter (Pa.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The argument they make is similar to McCains’. McCain says that he wanted to preserve the right to filibuster future judicial nominees appointed by future Democratic presidents. But that’s dumb, the Democrats have the balls to go nuclear and will if the Republicans ever abuse the filibuster the way the Democrats have.

Updat:Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will fight to get all ten Judges an up or down vote.

May 24th, 2005 - Mr. President, though I am not a party to the memorandum of understanding signed last night by 14 of my colleagues, I have had the opportunity to further review the agreement in more detail. I believe the memorandum of understanding makes modest progress, but falls far short, of guaranteeing up or down votes on judicial nominees. It needs to be carefully monitored and executed in good faith.

Let me briefly share my thoughts on the understanding reached last night and my expectations going forward.

First, the memorandum of understanding begins to break the partisan obstruction of the past two years and guarantee fair up or down votes on several judicial nominees. Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor all will receive the courtesy and fairness of up or down votes. I will continue to fight for other qualified nominees who have been waiting for votes and deserve the same courtesy and fairness.