Five New Freaks

The Nation provides the details about five new GOP Senators. Here's a condensed version:

Tom Coburn has proposed the death penalty for abortion doctors.

Jim DeMint has said gays shouldn't be able to teach or adopt.

Mel Martinez fears "homosexual extremists."

John Thune illegally intimidated American Indian voters.

David Vitter is a "polite David Duke."

O'Reilly says he does not endorse candidates; then condemns two democrats!

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Betty Castor holds a slim lead ahead of Republican Mel Martinez, a new Florida Zogby Poll shows.

The polls show Tom Daschle and challenger John Thune,each with a lead of a few points, meaning the race is statistically tied. A recent Zogby poll has Mr. Thune up by three percentage points, 49 percent to 46 percent. A Mason-Dixon , but O'Reilly already predicted Daschle the loser anyway! His non-endorsement reminds me of a backdoor draft!

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats beat back Jeff Sessions’ filibuster of Obama’s first judicial nominee – Judge David Hamilton – by a reassuring margin of 70-29. Sessions lost ten of his fellow Republicans, including conservatives like Hatch, Cornyn, and Thune, and Hamilton will be confirmed Thursday afternoon to the Seventh Circuit.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the GOP is winning the battle for the federal courts.

Just a few short years ago, right-wing Senators denounced filibusters of President Bush’s nominees in the strongest possible language and threatened to employ the “nuclear option.” Sessions went even further – he claimed Democrats were violating the Constitution by blocking any Bush nominee (no matter how extreme). But some time after November 4, 2008, his interpretation of the Constitution must have changed dramatically.

Now a Democrat is in the White House, and – hypocrisy be damned! – Sessions is vehemently pro-filibuster and pro-obstruction. And the worst part is that he’s been successful. Judge Hamilton was nominated in March to general acclaim. He received the highest possible rating from the ABA, both his home-state Senators strongly endorsed him (including senior Senate Republican Dick Lugar), and even the head of the Indianapolis Federalist Society backed him. It doesn’t get much better than that.

But the nomination was dragged out for months by the GOP. As a result, Hamilton will become just the seventh Obama nominee to be confirmed to the federal bench. By contrast, nearly 30 such Bush nominees had been confirmed at the same point. We’re talking lifetime appointments to the highest courts in our land. President Obama obviously has his hands full, but he can’t afford to neglect this crucial aspect of his legacy.

But so far, Obama has been playing into the hands of the GOP obstructionists. He’s nominated fewer than half as many people as Bush had at this point. That has got to change, and quickly. The Obama administration has a window of just 4-5 months to return some semblance of balance to the federal bench before the mid-term elections. The choice is simple: act now to fill the judicial pipeline with highly qualified progressive nominees, or let Sessions and Bush win.

As I was pleased to note last night in an update, pressure from the Netroots was instrumental in getting Sens. McCaskill (D-MO) and Specter (D-PA) to come out against the Thune Amendment, an assault on federalism, personal security and the proposition that Dems might actually stand up for something.

The vote is at noon. Keep your calls coming, as we are on the cusp of wining this one and saving countless lives, not to mention shutting down a key element of the right-wing machine in DC: The NRA.

Here are your numbers once again:

Those whose minds need to be changed

Bayh (D IN) 202-224-5623

Bennet (D CO) (202) 224-5852

Collins (R ME) (202) 224-2523

Conrad (D ND) (202) 224-2043

Feingold (D WI) 202/224-5323

Hagan (D NC) 202-224-6342

Landrieu (D LA) (202)224-5824

Lincoln (D AR) (202) 224-4843

McCain (R- AZ) (202) 224-2235

Pryor (D-AR) (202) 224-2353

Reid (D – NV) 202-224-3542

Snowe (R – ME) (202) 224-5344

Udall (D – NM) 202-224-6621

Udall (D – CO) 202-224-5941

Voinovich (R- OH) (202) 224-3353

Warner (D – VA) 202-224-2023

Webb (D –VA) 202-224-4024

Those we must hold:

Kohl (D – WI) (202) 224-5653

Klobuchar (D – MN) 202-224-3244

Nelson (D - FL) 202-224-5274

UPDATE: (Nicole) The Thune Amendment, which needed 60 votes to pass, went down 58-39) Thanks to all who called. Nice to see we can beat the NRA.

Full disclosure: I have been hired to work with Mayors Against Illegal Guns on this effort, and couldn't be happier or more passionate about it.

via Capitol Buzz: Thune At Center of Emerging Scandal The scandal epidemic running through the Republican party is spreading to South Dakota's John Thune. It's kind of complicated so we're not going to delve into the details -- we'll leave that to Clean Cut Kid and ThuneWatch.com. Go over to CB and check out the Buzz...

Wasn't he Jeff Gannon's favorite?

Thune Opposing Bolton as BRAC Payback

via Outside the Beltway

Senator John Thune, who promised during his campaign against then-Minority Leader Tom Daschle that electing him would save Ellsworth Air Force Base, is opposing John Bolton's nomination as UN Ambassador in a bizarre protest against that base's inclusion on the BRAC list.

Thune now says he'll oppose Bolton for U.N. (AP)

As James Joyner says, this is surprising to have a junior senator bucking the administration's man. I wish his protest though was founded on the idea that Bolton is a terrible choice to go to the UN instead of a power play.