The U.S. Senate reached a compromise today much to the chagrin of right-wing nut jobs and leftist gorillas like me (sort of). The senate had reached an impasse regarding the president's judicial nominations and they've moved beyond it for the moment. Judge Owens and others will get their "up or down" votes and Senate business won't be halted so Republicans really won this fight for the most part. The good cop-bad cop tactic works again. Was anything really achieved?

Nope.

The real issue all along has been the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) nominations. Chief Justice Rehnquist has been battling cancer. He was appointed by Nixon. Justice Stevens was appointed by Gerald Ford. They've been their awhile and their age surely is something to consider. Justics O'Connor, the first woman on the court was appointed by Reagan. They've the senior member of the court, all having been there 20 years or so and 2 at the 30 year mark. So who's Bush going to appoint? Will it be a modern day Bork or someone more moderate. The history of this administration would suggest someone particularly pious and conservative. I'd say Scalia was a shew in for chief justice when Rehnquist sets down the gavel.

Do the Democrats have the force to stop someone? Based on the way things are now, probably not unless some moderate Republicans jumped ship and that is certainly unlikely. Will Rehnquist hold on for a couple of more years? Who knows? But I also doubt you'll see 3 SCOTUS nominations in a year or less either. Maybe one because 3 would be an extreme change and we can always hope the judges' ideologies turn out to be a little different than anticipate. Elections are up next year and the entire house and a third of the senate will be up for grabs. No senators will be up for reelection in my home state of Kentucky so we must work hard to get Democrats back in the house. Let's hope we can get the job done, not just for the sake of Kentucky, but for the sake of the nation.

posted by Stithmeister @ 11:12 PM
 
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