Sen. Allen: Sell Your Home to Survive in Retirement

via SundayMorningTalk

Senator George Allen (R-VA) may have gotten in a bit over his head, this morning, on Meet the Press. On private accounts, he suggested that Americans might have to sell their homes to survive in retirement. But, that would be a good thing, because they wouldn't have to trim hedges and cut grass, he noted.

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Russert really hammered Allen today in an unusual show against the Republicans which has been a long time coming. I'll have more on Allen's response to the Nuclear option a little later.

Kevin Drum gives a mention.

Novak compares filibusters to Nazi death camps

I found this comment on Kos, by Box 13. (I hadn't had a chance to view the show yet)

"On The Captital Gang Saturday Bob Novak made the following statement:

HUNT: Bob, why would Senator Frist refuse an offer to break the deadlock?

I wonder how the Anti-Defamation League will feel about this."

After Mark Shields smacked him down with truth , Novak took the Lords name in vain, an obvious sin in Novak's passioned Catholicism.

SHIELDS: ...We are changing that now and forever, and don't you ever forget it, because it'll be 51, and they'll be ideological and it's going to be a change in the American judiciary permanently.

NOVAK: Oh, Christ!

Just another example of a religious zealot spewing lies to justify their means. I wonder how many times he goes to confession a week? I like the way he substitutes the "nuclear option" with the words"constitutional option."

Here's the new ad by "The People for the American Way" against the nuclear option

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What do you think? :-)

It's a good ad by the way.

via Obsidian Wings: Good Question. One of the likely scenarios for the nuclear option involves Vice President Cheney, in his capacity as President of the Senate, ruling that it is unconstitutional to filibuster judicial nominees....

"What is disappointing is that Cheney has, essentially, been allowed to maintain near perfect silence on the question of whether and why it is unconstitutional to filibuster judicial nominees. Nor, for reasons I hope I have demonstrated, is it enough to stop there? What constitutional conclusions has he reached on all these other questions? The failure of the press to push for answers on these questions is really disappointing -- inexcusable, in fact. It is also disappointing that the Democratic Senate caucus has not pressed him, or anyone, on these points in a sustained and public way...read on

Daily Kos was featured on MSNBC's Connected today as they talked about the filibuster showdown.

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The Diary is by David NYC: All Hands on Deck

Kos has a diary called: Nuclear Option Eve

Swing State Project is also in highh filibuster gear.

via The Carpet Bagger:

...So, who’s on Roll Call’s list on undecideds? Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Dick Lugar (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Arlen Specter (Pa.), and John Warner (Va.). Which ever side gets four of these seven will prevail.

Collins and Snowe have hinted at opposition and Dems on the Hill generally count them as “no” votes when doing nuclear head counts. Likewise, Lugar and Murkowski are believed to be leaning in the other direction. Warner and Specter have publicly criticized the nuclear option, but remain noncommittal, while Hagel is a complete mystery.

Stay tuned.

via The Carpetbagger Report

Since 2003, no one has shown as much enthusiasm for the nuclear option than Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum. He’s not only demanded it’s use, he’s promised every right-wing group in DC that he’d help make it happen. read on

That is, until this week. Suddenly, the man who couldn’t wait to go nuclear has sensed a shift in the political winds. It’s not that the GOP doesn’t have the votes to execute the nuclear option that has Santorum worried, but rather the political impact if they do.

Even Dick " I'm waiting for Chelsea to write a book" Morris thinks its a bad idea:

...But an attempt to switch the rules in the middle of the game on judicial filibusters will really make his alliance with the Christian right the main issue in his second-term presidency, with disastrous results.

Americans are simply not on board with his Moral Majority agenda. They voted for Bush twice -- or once -- despite his advocacy of a pro-life position, and his Schiavo posturing alienated moderate voters even more. His attempt to bar a filibuster will be seen as an effort to steamroll America into accepting the radical-right agenda on moral issues and will cost Bush the ballast he needs to appeal to the center of American politics.

Kos says: ...And I think Morris gets this one particularly right -- people probably won't react to the elimination of Senate tradition. Rather, it'll be the pattern of pandering to the Radical Right, the American Taliban, that is becoming increasingly apparent to even the casual observer.

via Carpetbagger Report

Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum has been stranger than usual lately. He exploited the Terri Schiavo controversy to fly to Florida for campaign fundraising, he used a Wal-Mart jet to do it, he threatened to shut down the Senate unless he got his way on Schiavo legislation, he flip-flopped on Amtrak funding, flip-flopped again on the death penalty, and just this week decided he may want to push off the nuclear option after fighting for it for two years. (Maybe his falling poll numbers are affecting his judgment.)

All of this nuttiness aside, Santorum’s decision to go after the National Weather Service has to be right up there among his stranger decisions....read on

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With the official word that 89 year old Justice John Paul Stevens will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of this term, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate made clear his party wouldn't hesitate to filibuster Stevens' replacement. Asked if the GOP would resort to the obstructionist tactic it once routinely decried, Arizona's Jon Kyl announced Sunday, "it will all depend on what kind of a person it is." Of course, as his years leading the Republican "up or down vote" chorus showed, John Kyl's kind of person is one picked by George W. Bush.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Kyl the GOP could very well filibuster Barack Obama's next pick to the Court if the President chose to "nominate an overly ideological person." But while Senate Democrats never filibustered President Bush's nominees to the nation's highest court, Kyl would make so such promises:

I would prefer to go back to the situation where it is not done by either party, but the Democrats won that fight. They filibustered Miguel Estrada. He never got on the court. Seven other circuit nominees. So what we need to do is, I think, apply the rule that the Gang of 14 game up with a couple years ago that you don't filibuster except in extraordinary circumstances, and I'm willing to live by that general rule.

Of course, that's a far cry from Kyl's past declaration that, "It's never been the case until the last two years that a minority could dictate to the majority what they could do."

If that seems like a 180 degree turnabout for the junior Senator from Arizona, that's because it is.

Back in 2005, Kyl was at the forefront of then-majority Senate Republicans threatening Democrats with the "nuclear option" rule change to bar future judicial filibusters of Bush appointees. At a November 28, 2005 campaign event for Kyl, President Bush praised his ally's fight to block the filibuster:

"I can't thank Jon Kyl enough for making sure the judges I nominate get a fair hearing and an up or down vote on the floor of the United States Senate."

When now-Justice Samuel Alito came before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, Kyl as usual parroted the trusted GOP sound bite:

"I look forward to a dignified hearing followed by a fair up-or-down vote on the Senate floor."

But after receiving what President Bush called a "thumping" in the 2006 mid-terms, the Republicans lost their Senate majority. And now, "the Decider" when it comes to Supreme Court nominations will be Democrat Barack Obama.

Continue reading »

GOP Tries To Rewrite The Nuclear Option Agreement

Steve has a great piece on the thiis: "Today, the GOP gave clear indications that they will interpret any filibuster attempt by Democrats against a far-right pick to be a violation of the nuclear option deal." read on..

Also :

Bush has already put the word out to his American Taliban base that his friendship with Gonzales counts for more than pleasing them. In this piece last night from USA Today, Bush scolded his conservative base for attacking Gonzales, which raises the possibility that despite the rhetoric about not making his mind up, Bush may already have done so, and may also be telling his base that despite the work they did in getting him reelected, their concerns are secondary when he is faced with the opportunity of installing a friend on the highest court in the land....read on