Make My Day

The Non-Nuclear Option

The tension builds inexorably as we all sit on the figurative edges of our collective public seats waiting for Senator Bill Frist to drop the bomb. Or not. Frankly, Scarlett, no one in middle America cares. But, wait. It can’t be true. The Democrats are perverting the judicial appointment process by not giving the President’s men and women an up or down vote. The Republicans are attempting to pack the court with “people of faith” to correct the liberal legislating from the bench that has corrupted our court system. The people must be terribly concerned. Naaahhh. They haven’t noticed. Only a few hard-core political junkies are paying much attention. There’s more interest in how much Ms Wilbank’s dress cost and whether or not widdle Mikey Jackson had merlot or pinot noir in his soda can.

How about this for a solution? Let the Democrats filibuster!

I mean it. Let them filibuster. Don’t simply cave because they THREATEN to filibuster. Put the item on the agenda, call it to the floor and then let them go for greatness. Make them put up or shut up. Let them show the people who put them there exactly what it looks like. Don’t simply say you threatened to filibuster so we won’t bring the issue up. C’mon Senator Frist, you da man. Set the agenda. Let’s have a filibuster. Let’s stop the business of the nation while Bobby Byrd reads in his sonorous West Virginia Klan Kleagle voice from the Washington phone book.

We don’t need to remove the filibuster option from the convoluted rules of the Senate. We simply need to force the hand of the obstructionists. If they are correct in their assumption that the people want to be protected from these judicial appointments, they will make political hay while they have their day in the sun. But, if the lumpen-democracy doesn’t like their display, they will suffer at the polls come November 2006. Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work? It ain’t quite nuclear, more like a .44 Magnum of parliamentary procedure.

“Ah Ah, I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"