November 18, 2003
CRANK UP THE ATTACK ADS:
How Ted cemented filibuster (Alexander Bolton, 11/18/03, The Hill)
Confidential Democratic memos downloaded from a Senate Judiciary Committee database and leaked to the press show that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) overcame the reservations of 15 Senate colleagues to convince Democrats to wage filibusters against some of President Bush’s judicial nominees. [...]A memo prepared for Kennedy in April stated that Democratic staff had “heard that several Democratic senators have expressed concern about any filibuster of a judicial nominee that is based on substance, as opposed to process.”
The memo listed 15 senators who “may be wavering or opposed to extended debate.” They are: Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Tom Carper (Del.), Bob Graham (Fla.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.), John Breaux (La.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Fritz Hollings (S.C.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.) and Zell Miller (Ga.).
Now, some seven months later, only two Democrats, Ben Nelson and Miller, have voted to end the Democratic filibuster of three pending judicial nominees.
The same memo suggested that Kennedy speak out against 5th Circuit nominee Priscilla Owen during a Democratic Caucus meeting, after charging that Owen was “extremely bad on choice issues, worker’s rights, civil rights, [and] environmental protection.”
Two months earlier, the committee’s Democratic staff prepared talking points for Kennedy to use in meetings to convince colleagues to oppose Estrada and Owen.
One document opposing Estrada argued that “the D.C. Circuit is far too important to appoint someone about whom we have so many questions. Key labor, civil rights, environmental, and administrative law cases are decided there, and we know it is a ‘feeder’ circuit for the Supreme Court… . We can’t repeat the mistake we made with Clarence Thomas.”
A memo accompanying those talking points dated February of this year showed Democrats most adamantly opposed to Bush’s nominees were able to sway their colleagues through a series of one-on-one lobbying sessions.
“The senator-to-senator conversations continue and things appear to be going well,” the document stated. “That being said, we’ve heard that Breaux will support Estrada. Landrieu is a problem, but many are focused on her. Bayh is also on the fence. [Sen. John] Edwards [D-N.C.] spoke with him without much luck, and [former] Senator Bayh, Sr. [D-Ind., Bayh’s father] is going to speak with him, too.”
You've got to be able to tar Lincoln and Dorgan with dancing to Ted Kennedy's tune. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2003 10:23 PM
Ah, Ted. Sounds like a guy deserving of a statesmanship award from the Bush Presidential Library, eh?
Posted by: kevin whited at November 18, 2003 10:54 PMGiven this information, I would think another vote on the judges in October 2004 would be in the cards, along with commercials in the Republican-leaning states of the Democratic senators up for re-election informing voters about the Kennedy memo.
Posted by: John at November 18, 2003 11:41 PMGeorge, the lesson to be learned here is that no good deed goes unpunished. Here you reached out to Mr. Kennedy, invited him over to watch "28 Days" the latest puff peice excessively glorifying Teddy's more honorable brothers, worked with him in good faith on an education bill, and he responds by bullying other Senators into philibustering judicial appointments, threatens to philibuster your perscription drugs bill, and makes libelous and traitorous statements about you while you're trying to protect America from terrorists who'd want him dead as surely as those of us who actually care about America more than his own personal power. This is not a man who should be in the Senate, this is a man who should be answering for the woman he left to die in Chappaquiddick river.
I've changed my mind on Hinckley, let him have his furlow, but only if you tell him Jodie Foster hates Ted Kennedy, just HATES him.
Posted by: MarkD at November 19, 2003 9:22 PM