A History Lesson on Judicial Appointments From Chief Justice Rehnquist
A History Lesson on Judicial Appointments From Chief Justice Rehnquist
Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Bill Frist made his distorted and manipulative case that it’s an abrogation of a Senator’s duty not to confirm each and every one of President Bush’s judicial nominees.
FRIST: “The American people elect their Senators for a reason. It’s to represent them. And they expect us to do our job. The Senate is a deliberative body. We are a proudly deliberative body. But we also have certain responsibilities, which include giving advice and consent on the President’s judicial nominees. When a judicial nominee comes to this floor and has majority support, but is denied a simple up-or-down vote, Senators aren’t doing their job.”
Senator Frist and the right-wing establishment aren’t happy with receiving 95 percent of their judicial nominees. They want them all. Make no mistake about it, calling for approval by a simple majority vote is in essence calling for a Senatorial rubber-stamp. Senator Frist needs a history lesson from the decidedly conservative Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
In 1987, Chief Justice Rehnquist said it was “extraordinarily shrewd” of the Framers to have structured the advice and consent powers as they did because the conflicts over judicial appointments ensures both a balance of power and quality candidates. From a 9/17/87 article in UPI:
Rehnquist also touched on the importance of the Constitution’s appointment clause, which allows presidents to nominate officials for certain government posts but requires the Senate to confirm them.
“This seemingly simple clause has been a bone of contention between the president and Congress and between the president and public officials at various times in our history. These conflicts and their resolutions show that the framers were extraordinarily shrewd in protecting one branch of the federal government from the unwarranted incursions of the other,” Rehnquist told a Monroe County Bar Association gathering in Rochester.
Protecting the Legislative Branch from incursions of the Executive Branch — a novel idea that Frist and right-wingers see as an annoying obstacle in their quest for more power.
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Thanks Faiz. I feel smarter now.
May 18th, 2005 at 5:20 pmFrist certainly is not the most competent student of the US Constitution. “The American people elect their Senators for a reason. It’s to represent them/” Not exactly. Senators represent the States, and were for a very long time selected and appointed rather than elected, just for that intent and purpose. Congresspersons are elected by the people as representatives, and thus called that. The rest of his spew is simply further evidence of his negligible intellect.
May 18th, 2005 at 6:25 pmToday, Frist is pulling the trigger on the nuclear option. Next thing you know, he’ll be pushing Pat Robertson’s Judicial Dress Code Act…
May 18th, 2005 at 8:37 pmThis entire issue could have been avoided had the Dems simply WON THE ELECTION, and then sent a Democrat majority to both houses.
But….. they lost. They offered one John Kerry as a shining star. He was defeated. They had several of their senators and representatives sent back home to the farm.
Why? It was a combination of factors, but here are a few that turned the tide…..
1) Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911
May 19th, 2005 at 1:32 am2) Swift Boat vets skewered Kerry
3) Theresa was an embarrassment
4) Kerry was hard to listen to
5) Dan Rather’s embarrassing screwup
6) News reports showing gay men kissing after being married in New England
7) For all the noise from the youth, on election day….THE YOUTH STAYED HOME.
Buckshot; The right wingers stole this election in Ohio the last election and in Florida in 2000 If you want to be informed go US Count Votes web cite and get the big picture.
May 19th, 2005 at 11:19 amWillie,
On the subject of “stealing elections”…. I agree with you that our system is broken. Paperless machines guarantee fraud, in my opinion.
As I learned in amateur boxing, if you don’t want the judges making the decision, you have to win the fight by knockout. If the Dems would have found a viable candidate, who could have convinced America that gay marriages were good, higher taxes on middle income workers are necessary, and free abortions are utopia, then we wouldn’t be discussing how the GOP “stole” the election.
Attempts by dems to lower the vote to 16, to allow illegals to vote, to get the felons to the polls, etc, all hurt the dems.
America doesn’t want our elected officials elected by felons, illegal aliens, welfare moms, and gays.
It is working, taxpaying Americans who are footing the bills in this country. Red staters. The “progressives” are the party of welfare, of dependancy, of entitlement, by any means necessary.
Don’t talk to me about unethical election tactics. The Dems attempted to register every felon, illegal, and welfare mom in America, as well as the MTV youth. Fortunately, most of them stayed home on election day.
May 19th, 2005 at 11:48 amI suggest that you engage in the simple act that revered (and liberal) Supreme Court Justice Black regularly utilized to reach conclusions on matters of constitutional law. Read the constitution. Apply its words — as literally as reasonably possible. When you do you will find that while the constitution expressly provides that some Senate votes require more than a simple majority, the votes to consent to appointments do not. And you will not find that the constitution guarantees a single senator (or even a minority of senators) to prevent the entire body from voting on any matter properly brought before it. Democrat pretensions that the right to engage in a sham “filibuster” has a constitutional basis are just wrong. And twisting Chief Justice Rehnquists comment into a supposed endorsement of that position is just wrong.
May 19th, 2005 at 12:02 pmBuckshot’s scattershot presentation of Reagan era propaganda strikes again. I’m surprised he didn’t mention Tammany Hall. In the meantime, George Bush and friends willhave bankrupted the nation and left us friendless in the world while his jackbooted thugs run rampant in our nation, turning us into the darkest vision of a totalitarian state. The amateur boxing is a hint that maybe a person can have too many concussive head injuries.
May 19th, 2005 at 2:08 pmBigfoot,
You are correct that Bush & Co. are bankrupting America.
Most of your assumptions about me are incorrect.
I do, however advocate the following….
1) responsible behavior
2) self reliance
3) fair business practices
4) following the US constitution
5) reform of the shameful tax code
6) self – improvement as a lifetime thing
I’m not religious, I’m not conservative, and I don’t have any grudges. I merely believe a lot of people are being pandered to. Politicians cannot do anything for you, except to help enforce the constitution. You need to take care of yourself and your family. The only thing government can give is what they’ve taken from someone else. By force.
If my opinion bothers you, I’d welcome adult dialogue. I’m always open to intelligent debate.
By the way, my boxing days were brief, and I used headgear. Plus, several decades have passed, allowing regeneration of brain cells.\I can still do a rubik’s cube in under 90 seconds, and memorize a shuffled deck of cards in 3 minutes. Still think I’m addled?
May 19th, 2005 at 2:26 pmit was GWB who first floated the idea of letting illegal immigrants vote
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