Kennedy, Democrats Threaten to Shut Down Senate If ‘Nuclear Option’ is Imposed
WASHINGTON, March 16 – Sen. Edward Kennedy joined seven other Democratic senators Wednesday in promising to try to stop Republicans from changing Senate rules to eliminate filibustering on federal judicial nominees.
“This administration, they control the executive, they control the House of Representatives, they control the Senate and they want to control the judiciary, and I say, ‘No way,’ ” Kennedy said while pounding his fist on the podium in front of about 500 people at a rally sponsored by the political action committee Move On.
The Senate Republican leadership threat, becoming commonly known as the “nuclear option,” would involve a parliamentary procedural move to prevent filibustering of judicial nominees. Filibustering still would be allowed on legislation.
The leadership has accused Democrats of abusing the filibuster by using it to block confirmation votes on 10 appellate court nominations in the last session of Congress. President George W. Bush has renominated in this session seven of the ten nominees who were blocked by filibuster.
Senate rules require 60 votes to end a filibuster. If the Republicans change the rules to stop the filibuster on judicial nominees, 51 votes of the 100 members would be needed for approval rather than the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster. Republicans hold 55 seats.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats have threatened to slow the Senate’s work by filibustering legislation should the Republicans employ the nuclear option. In an interview before the rally, Reid called the majority party’s threat an act of “arrogance of power in changing the basic rules of this country” and said the Democrats “are not looking for a fight.”
“We don’t want to shut down the Senate, we want the rules of this country which have been in effect for more than 200 years to stay in effect,” the Nevada Democrat said.
Reid sent a two-page letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) Tuesday formally threatening to “not be as cooperative” on the Senate’s work. In the interview before rally he said he believes the nuclear option is “not about judges” and if used once will be used again.
“Whatever the issue of debate is they’ll just change it to a simple majority and we will just be a unicameral legislature, just like the House of Representatives,” Reid said.
Frist issued a statement Tuesday saying the potential Senate shutdown would be “irresponsible and partisan.”
“Never before in the history of the Senate has a nominee with clear majority support been denied an up or down vote on the Senate floor because of a filibuster,” he said. “The solution is simple: return to 200 years of tradition and allow up or down votes on judges.”
But Reid said before giving his speech that it would take a bipartisan effort to stop the nuclear option and that Democrats were “begging for Republicans of goodwill to step forward and help us on this.”
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) also said in an interview before the rally began that he did not believe the issue was “a partisan matter” and that Senate rules “should be changed in accordance with the rules that provide for the changing of the rules, they should not be rammed down the throats” of the Senate members.
Before giving the keynote speech, Byrd brushed his hand across his American flag tie to pull out from his breast pocket a tattered copy of the U.S. Constitution complete with post-it notes, thrusting it into the air amid cheers during one of the rally’s many standing ovations.
The senior member of the Senate he shouted, “We must kill this dangerous effort to rewrite our precious Constitution,” later declaring that the effort to impose the nuclear option would be a “gag rule for the United States Senate.”
As the 87-year-old finished his speech, he pulled his pocket-sized Constitution out again with a smile, saying, “All you need is the Constitution.”
During other senators’ speeches, Byrd pumped his fist in the air, shouting encouragement. Before Kennedy spoke, Byrd got up from his chair to shake hands with the Massachusetts Democrat, reaching across the podium with one hand, cane in the other.
The eight senators offered similar messages to the audience and some, including Kennedy, listed by name the 10 judicial nominees who did not get through the Senate last year. One nominee mentioned was William G. Myers, who has been renominated and is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9 th Circuit.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told the audience that “no single person, no single judge, no single senator is more important than our duty to preserve the values of the Senate and the strength of our constitutional democracy.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he would continue to oppose certain judicial nominees, saying he believes the Democrats “have a duty to stop these people” from becoming federal judges.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it would be “a doomsday for democracy” if the nuclear option allows some nominees to get through the Senate, adding that some of the nominated judges “are off the deep end.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Republicans are “throwing a temper tantrum” to try to get their judicial appointees confirmed, and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said the nuclear option would “basically end minority rights” in the Senate.
“As bad as this is about judges and about the potential loss of an independent judiciary, one of the hallmarks of American democracy, it will not end there,” Clinton said, adding that it could influence the Social Security debate. “If you can end debate with majority vote in order to get to a judicial nomination then you can end debate when the majority is trying to run you over on anything.”
Clinton said she believed Republicans could be swayed to stop the potential nuclear option saying, “We have to persuade a handful of Republican senators that this is not what they signed on for.”
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