Republicans changed the rules when they won the Senate...

[kentuck]

With all the discussion on C-SPAN this AM about "filibustering", they have not focused on the rules that were changed. When they were the minority, the rules were that a Senator, one Senator in Committee, could put a block on any judge. And the Republicans, led by Orrin Hatch, did it often. So, they did not have to filibuster on the floor of the Senate. The nominees never made it to the Senate.

But, then they won the Senate and they changed that rule. Democrats would no longer have the same option that the Republicans had when they were the minority. All judges would be brought to the floor for vote.

[rainy]

1. God, I remember Boxer or someone bringing that up on the

floor. It was said that some of clinton's pics didn't even make it to the floor for consideration. I've been wondering why this is not being mentioned in the news casts. What a joke journalists are. They never get the story right. It is sickening.

[progressivejazz]

2. Why aren't the Democrats hammering this?

They should be featuring it at every opportunity. It's their winning argument.

I'm really bothered that the Democrats haven't made this the center point of the issue. It seems they don't really want to win.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. It is being reported to some degree. See this article....

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/opinion/main683182.shtml

"All this changed in 1996. Rather than openly challenge President Clinton's nominees on the floor, Republicans decided to deny them Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Between 1996 and 2000, 20 of Bill Clinton's appeals-court nominees were denied hearings, including Elena Kagan, now dean of the Harvard Law School, and many other women and minorities. In 1999, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch refused to hold hearings for almost six months on any of 16 circuit-court and 31 district-court nominations Clinton had sent up. Three appeals-court nominees who did manage to obtain a hearing in Clinton's second term were denied a committee vote, including Allen R. Snyder, a distinguished Washington lawyer, Clinton White House aide, and former Rehnquist law clerk, who drew lavish praise at his hearing -- but never got a committee vote. Some 45 district-court nominees were also denied hearings, and two more were afforded hearings but not a committee vote.

Even votes that did occur were often delayed for months and even years. In late 1999, New Hampshire Republican Bob Smith blocked a vote on 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Richard Paez for months by putting an anonymous hold on the nomination. When Majority Leader Trent Lott could no longer preserve the hold, Smith and 13 other Republicans tried to mount a filibuster against the vote, but cloture was voted and Paez easily confirmed. It had been over four years since his nomination."