Last night, Hugh Hewitt asked Senator Kyl whether Republicans had pulled even in the P.R. battle over judicial nominations yet. Kyl responded:
I’m not sure that we have yet. The problem is that Bill Frist, the Senate Republican Majority leader, did not want to fire the first shot. He said he’s going to try to work out some resolution of this issue, as hard as he can. And the other side decided well, they were ready to go do battle. And so they’ve had all of their outside groups putting on advertising on TV, and they’ve all been making these speeches, and so on. So, I think they got ahead of us in the P.R. battle. Maybe we’re even now, but the fact of the matter is, the argument is on the side of retaining the tradition of the Senate. And an over 200 year old tradition of giving nominees an up or down vote. And far from changing the rules, we are simply restoring that tradition that existed for 200 years, that’s only been broken as a result of the last Congress, when these judges were filibustered by the Democrats.
More of the interview is available at Radioblogger.com.