Facts and Falsehoods about Filibusters & Voting for Judges

Last night on Hardball, Senator Joseph Biden (D-NJ), a 6-term senator and student of US Senate history, told host Chris Matthews that until 1948, the Senate required a 100% vote to confirm judicial nominations.

That's right...from the founding of our country until 1948, about 170 years, a 100% unanimous vote was required to confirm a judicial nomination. Our founding fathers designed US democracy to be dependent on the fairness and impartiality of the judicial system. Judges are appointed for life. To keep our democracy from crumbling into dictatorship, US founders urgently believed that far more than a simple Senate majority is essential to preserve judicial integrity.
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A clear explanation of the need for filibuster was spoken by Steven Schwartz, senior writer for the Family Research Council, a spin-off from James Dobson's Focus on the Family, on National Public Radio about 7 years ago in response to a Clinton nomination....

"The Senate is not a majoritarian institution, like the House of Representatives is a deliberative body, and it's got a number of checks and balances built into our government. The filibuster is one of those checks in which a majority cannot just sheerly force its will, even if they have a majority of votes in some cases.

That's why there are things like filibusters, and other things that give minorities in the Senate some power to slow things up, to hold things up, and let things be aired properly."

Yes, Focus on the Family campaigned for the filibuster when it was useful to them. Now, Dr. James Dobson finds it useful to kill the filibuster. Apparently Dr. Dobson desires to change American government institutions to suit his political needs.
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An excellent summary of the filibuster was written here by Kathy Gill, About.com Guide to US Politics.

A few fascinating facts I learned from her article: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist voted against ending the filibuster against a Clinton judicial nominee in 2000; in 1968, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to derail the nomination of Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; and lastly, the Senate approval rate for George Bush's judicial nominees is the highest for any president in almost 25 years.
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Changing the foundations and underpinnings of our government to suit the extremist political whims of one group is wrong and dangerous. It threatens the stability of the US.

These cheap, hypocritical power plays by Frist-led Senate Republicans must be repudiated to maintain the integrity of US democracy.

Come join the heated discussion at this site's Forum about filibusters and judicial nominations.