My Reasonable Proposal

Update: ThinkProgress has a report from the battle, now in progress. Chuck Schumer of New York asks the question I've been shouting every time I've heard Frist talk about it being a matter of principle that all judicial nominees deserve an up-or-down vote:

SEN. SCHUMER: Isn't it correct that on March 8, 2000, my colleague [Sen. Frist] voted to uphold the filibuster of Judge Richard Paez?

Frist's response reads like a John Ritter speech on Three's Company:

The president, the um, in response, uh, the Paez nomination - we'll come back and discuss this further. ...Actually I'd like to, and it really brings to what I believe - a point - and it really brings to, oddly, a point, what is the issue. The issue is we have leadership-led partisan filibusters that have, um, obstructed, not one nominee, but two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, in a routine way.

Judd at ThinkProgress dissects the inane implication, and provides a link to a well-cited history of Fristian hypocrisy on this issue at the Center for American Progress.

Previously, on 'Rationcination'

The latest on the coming nuclear holocaust in the Senate:

"Republicans believe in the regular order of fair up-and-down votes and letting the Senate decide yes or no on judicial confirmations free from procedural gimmicks like the filibuster," Dr. Frist said in a statement on Monday, "and I hope Senator Reid and others know our door is always open to reasonable proposals for fair up-or-down votes for judicial nominees."

Dear Dr. Frist, here is my proposal. Go around twisting Republican arms, and then offer 5 Democrats some juicy pork from the barrel or other blandishment. (Heck, a convivial fellow could maybe even talk someone as gullible as Joe Lieberman into believing that Priscilla Owen will support our national security.)

Then, when the Democrats filibuster, you hold a plain old, traditional, conservative, cloture vote. Voila, the Dems lose cloture, and you get to have your "fair" up-or-down vote to approve your nominee. Hey, wow, you wouldn't even need to pull your own "procedural gimmick", or ask that nice Mr. Cheney to change his schedule to come down to the Senate for you.

The best part is that, since you are playing by the established rules, the Democrats will just have to live with it, instead of having an excuse to shut down the Senate by "working to rule". You could even co-opt the Democrats' rhetoric, and burnish the reputation of these nominees by crowing about how they got "extra" approval, which makes their lifetime appointment "even more" legitimate.

Hey, considering the 200+ Bush nominees already approved, it seems like there are Democratic senators who are willing to go along, unless the nominee is really, really awful. And you keep trying to tell us how wonderful these nominees are, so, like, what are you going on about? You've already got your path to a vote on these characters.

Why's a tough guy like you afraid of a little filibuster? You can crush your enemies beneath your feet! Wouldn't winning a cloture vote really demonstrate the power and righteousness of the conservative stand, and impress your base for 2008?

Stop whining, you big sissy.