In a floor speech with its fair share of nothing, there’s this important message. Frist may be doing something right behind the scenes? We’ll see.
In the exchange of offers and counter offers between Sen. Frist, the Majority
Leader and Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrat Leader, Democrats have made an offer to
avoid a vote on the nuclear/constitutional option by confirming one of the four
filibustered judges: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and William
Myers with the choice to be selected by Republicans.
An offer to confirm any one of the those four nominees is an explicit concession
that each is qualified for the court and that they are being held hostage as pawns in a
convoluted chess game which has spiraled out of control. If the Democrats really believe
each is unqualified, a “deal” for confirmation for any one of them is repugnant to the
basic democratic principle of individual, fair and equitable treatment and violates
Senators’ oaths on the constitutional confirmation process. Such “deal” making confirms
public cynicism about what goes on behind Washington’s closed doors.
Instead, let the Senate consider each of the four without the constraints of party
line voting. Let us revert to the tried and tested method of evaluating each nominee
individually.