Nuclear Justice

A friend approached me a few weeks ago, with a question. “Why are the Republicans trying to change the Constitution to get what they want?” He, of course, was not asking it for himself, but rather it was a friend of his who kept talking about it, and he wanted to know what was going on.

It was that conversation that caused me to think. Many times I take it for granted that most people are as politically aware as I am. (Or at least, that’s what my friends tell me.) And, I don’t blame them. Politics can be frustrating, confusing, and time-consuming to keep up with. Believe me, I understand. That being said, being aware of what is happening in our government is crucial to safe-guarding liberty and protecting freedom.

It is for that reason that I write this article. Call it “The Nuclear Option...in laymen’s terms”. Wanna know what’s the truth about what is happening? Then, listen up; I’ll do my best not to bore you. Federal court judges are appointed to a life-time term. It was the founding fathers’ intent to insulate them from the fluctuating winds of public opinion. The judges are appointed by the President and must be approved by a simple up or down vote by the Senate. This was the genius of our founding fathers. Each branch of government would be involved, therefore contributing to a balance of power.

Today, nominees are discussed on a preliminary basis in the Senate judicial committee (a small group of chosen Senators from each party). The committee then votes to send them to the Senate as a whole, where they get either approved or rejected. But, some of the nominees are not mainstream enough, that is, according to the Democrats.

Now allow me to explain what that means. Basically, these nominees are either pro-life, conservative, or they believe that the Constitution is their number one rule for practice not past presidents or other countries' rules or laws.

So, in response, the Democrats have come up with a plan. Whenever the matter of judical nominees comes up, they threaten to shut down the government, by refusing to do any Senate business. This is called a filibuster. According to the rules in place in the Senate, you need 60 votes (a “super-majority”) to end the filibuster. Thus creating a slight paradox. 60 votes would be required to end the filibuster to vote on a judge that needs only needs 50 votes to be approved. Sound stupid?? It is. In fact, in the entire history of our country, it has NEVER been done before. This is completely, 100% unprecedented, and leaves President Bush with one of the lowest rates of nominees’ approval in our history.

So the Republicans have decided to end the foolishness, by changing the rules to require a simple majority vote to end the filibuster. This change would have no problem passing since it requires just a majority vote to proceed, thus allowing a simple up or down vote on each of the nominees. But, of course, the majority of the public has better things to do than follow the Democrats’ selfish “I’m taking my ball and going home” politics. So, the media has stepped in to pinch hit for their Democrat pals. First, they have out-right ignored the issue. Most people don’t know that this stupidity has been going on for a long time, many months before the last presidential election; and, yet it was largely ignored by the mainstream press. Most people didn’t hear about it until recently when it became too difficult to keep under wraps. Then they used vague terms in reporting the news but never quite explaining to the public what the news was all about. Then, as a last resort, they decided to use inflammatory language. The rule change, that has been proposed, has been named “The Nuclear Option” in an obvious attempt to scare people into believing that “those waskilly, wepublicans are out to destroy America.” They use phrases such as “200 years of great Senate tradition” and “destroying democracy” to strike fear in the hearts of an uniformed public.

Pretty clever, if you ask me.

But, now you are informed. Now you know the truth of what is going on and you are now immune to the clever twisting of the facts by the media and the Democrats.

As for the whole issue, the time has come to end the foolishness and immaturity of Democrats and allow the Senate to do its job. I am not demanding that all the nominees get approved, not at all. I am demanding that they be given an up or down vote. No more games, no more trickery. Is that too much to ask?