Posted by onepartysystem on March 02, 2005 at 15:50:41:
Order in the Court
Republicans are pushing to alter the Senate’s rules so that a
simple majority could cut off debate on judicial nominees . . . the
change could render the Democrats almost powerless to stop Bush’s
choices, including nominees to the United States Supreme Court. The
magnitude of this transformation of the rules is suggested by the
nickname it has acquired within the Senate: the “nuclear option.”
The New Yorker
Blowing Up the Senate
February 28, 2005
The Senate calendar suggests that Senator Frist could act in the
next four to eight weeks. The far right is demanding that Frist pull the
nuclear trigger now to clear a path for a series of nominees in the mold
of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the most aggressive right-wing
ideologues on the Court.
Ralph Neas
The Real Judicial Emergency
February 28, 2005
Senator Frist “will in fact impose the nuclear option. And there
will be a 51-vote necessity only. When that happens, you are dead in the
water, and you ought to be."
Jerry Falwell
Crossfire
February 16, 2005
The Kremlin press pool is like so many institutions in Russia that
have the trappings of a Western-style pluralistic society but operate
under a different set of understandings . . . Courts conduct trials, but
the state almost never loses. Parliament meets but only to rubber-stamp
Kremlin legislation.
Washington Post
In Russian Media, Free Speech for a Select Few
February 25, 2005