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"Filibuster Ends, Apology to Follow "
[  06/07 06:14 PM]

From Best of the Web:

By a 65-32 vote, the Senate today ended the filibuster, begun in 2003, against the nomination of Justice Janice Rogers Brown of California's Supreme Court to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A confirmation vote is expected tomorrow. Ten Democrats joined all 55 Republicans in voting for "cloture" (60 votes were needed): the seven compromisers plus Tom Carper of Delaware, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Bill Nelson of Florida — all of whom are up for re-election next year.

Meanwhile, USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050607/a_capcol07.art.htm reports (penultimate item) that the Senate will pass a resolution next week in which it "belatedly apologizes for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation":

"Doria Dee Johnson, an author and lecturer on lynchings, says she will be in the chamber next Monday when the Senate will take up a resolution expressing remorse for not stopping a crime that took the lives of at least 4,742 people, mostly blacks, from 1882 to 1968. . . .

"The Senate resolution, sponsored by Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and George Allen, R-Va., notes that nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in the first half of the 20th century and that seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching. But Senate filibusters blocked anti-lynching legislation for decades, Johnson said. "

It's a shame the apology didn't come up a few weeks ago, when Democrats were still touting the filibuster as one of the glories of American government.