Filibuster myth-busters

There is a good deal of noise over the so called "nuclear" option that would end the filibustering of judicial nominees. To hear the dems and their shills in the MSM, this would be an attak on the Constitution and free speech. There are many myths being presented as fact by the dems and the MSM that backs them. Wendy Long takes on the myths and and debunks them in her commentary.

• Myth No. 1:Filibuster of judges is a sacred tradition.
  
• Myth No. 2: Mr. Bush's nominees are being treated no differently than other presidents' nominees.
  
• Myth No. 3: The Senate has a "co-equal" role with the president in judicial nominations.
  
• Myth No. 4: The current filibuster is about "free speech."
  
• Myth No. 5: The filibuster protects "the right of the minority" to veto nominees.
  

The filibustering of judicial nominees is a so called tradition recently started by the dems.

Bush nominations have the lowest confirmation rate since FDR.

The Senate does not have a co-equal role, it's Constitutional role is of advice and consent. There is no two thirds majority required for confirmation.
The free speech arguement is the lamest of all. No one is stopping the dems from speaking out. It is the dems that are trying to stiffle the free speech of the majority by refusing to permit an up or down vote on judicial nominees.

The minority does not have the right to veto nominees. If that were the case, then the Constitution would require a two thirds majority and not a simple majority.

A liberal minority needs federal judges to advance their agenda — allowing child pornography as free speech, mandating same-sex marriage, removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, banning school prayer and preventing the death penalty for murderers and terrorists — because they can't win these issues at the ballot box. Mr. Bush promised to nominate judges who will apply the law as written and stay out of politics. The recent Ayres survey shows 67 percent of voters agree that "we should take politics out of the courts and out of the confirmation process." A full 61 percent of Democrats agree with this statement, as well as 73 percent of Independents and 69 percent of Republicans.

The American people want senators to do the job our tax dollars pay them to do. Senators who fail to do their jobs — either by failing to show up for their committee meetings, by voting against restoring the Senate tradition of up-or-down votes for judges, or by halting the work of the federal government — might find themselves out of work when they really need the consent of the governed: at their next election.

Here is the real agenda behind this obstructionism. What the dems cannot get through legislation, they are trying to get through an activist judiciary. By blocking well qualified Bush nominees, they must be hoping that Bush will withdraw those nominees in favor of those that would be more accepting of the liberal, leftist agenda. The American people have spoken and it is time the dems stop dancing to the tune of their special interest groups and do the work the people sent them to DC to do. - Sailor