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Bill Frist, Hero of the Constitution

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 4/29/2005 9:38:46 AM

Early this week, the media was floating stories that suggested that Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee would accept a deal with Harry Reid, the senate’s shrinking minority leader.  The deal would have preserved the rights of the Democratic Party to impose minority rule upon the judiciary by preserving the filibuster rule for judicial nominees, but would let two or three of the "less extreme" blocked nominees through.  When I first read the stories, I was livid, and was ready to hit Conservativity and slam Dr. Frist hard.  However, I decided to give the media the credence it is actually due and wait to see if the story was true.

"Sure enough, Dr. Frist forcefully made it clear that he was uninterested in the left-wing’s deal, which would be no less than a total capitulation to the extreme left."

Sure enough, Dr. Frist forcefully made it clear that he was uninterested in the left-wing’s deal, which would be no less than a total capitulation to the extreme left.  First of all, accepting the deal is effectively a "pocket amendment" to the Constitution, meaning that all judicial nominees need 60 votes to pass.  Acceptance also acknowledges a lie, and in essence admits that these nominees are "extreme" when they are anything but.  Dr. Frist refused to do either thing, and instead proposed his own solution.

Our Senate majority leader offered a compromise:  All nominees get an up-down vote in the full senate.  Filibusters prohibited for Appellate and Supreme Court nominees, but retained for district court nominees.  Appellate and Supreme Court nominees can get up to 100 hours of debate on the Senate floor (a gigantic amount of debate compared to all other legislation and a truly monumental amount for judicial nominees).  Of course, Harry Reid threw a temper fit because he did not get his way.

Dr. Frist is a Hero of the Constitution.  As I have advised the left before, if you want a supermajority to confirm a judge, great.  Begin the process to amend the Constitution.  If you fear that you cannot get the Congressional votes (two thirds of both houses) to put the amendment to the states, there are alternative methods of amending the constitution.  If the Democrats are so sure that they represent the majority of the people, even though those very people voted them out of power, it’s time to put their confidence to the test.  Call a Constitutional convention.  Get 34 states to vote up a convention and the convention can propose as many amendments as it pleases, and they will all be submitted to the states.  And if 38 state legislatures or state conventions pass the amendment, there’s not a darned thing that the judiciary or the Congress or the President can do.

"Of course, the Democrats continue with their petulant baby fits precisely because they lack enough popular support for their extreme agenda..."

Of course, the Democrats continue with their petulant baby fits precisely because they lack enough popular support for their extreme agenda of vote extortion via government dole, virulent hatred of and discrimination against Christians, licentiousness in lieu of true liberty, class warfare, and obeisance to labor unions dedicated to preserving the jobs of lazy teachers and thus producing subpar education.  The people want what the GOP is offering.  Self-reliance.  No dependence on government.  Lower taxes.  Results from the schools.  The left is bereft of any idea that is younger than Robert Byrd, and is afraid of floating anything for fear of fracturing its unstable coalition of extreme groups, whose only thread of commonality is their leadership’s hatred of the country that they seek to take over and make over into a newer, more vicious, incarnation of Stalin’s Soviet Union.  The GOP believes in and loves this wonderful God-blessed country, recognizes that we are great because of our Christian faith, wants people to be truly free, and wants to protect that liberty from an oligarchy of judges who can, if not self-restrained, ruin that very liberty.

It’s time to trigger the nuclear option and nuke this attack on our Constitutional right to have our representatives do the job for which we elected them.