|
|
 |
| Sen. John
McCain (R-Az.). Will join with Democrats to preserve filibuster
of judicial nominees. |
Who opposes filibuster reform?
As of May 4, 2005, all of the 45 members of the Senate
Democratic caucus were opposing the effort of Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tn.) to abolish filibusters on judicial nominees
If more than five Republican senators vote with the Democrats, it will not
be possible to establish the precedent that filibusters are not allowed on
judicial nominations.
As of May 4, three Republican senators had come out clearly against the
reform: Lincoln Chafee (RI), Olympia Snowe (Me.), and John McCain (Az.).
McCain, who some political observers expect to seek the Republican
presidential nomination in 2008 as he did in 2000, announced in April that
he will oppose the reform.
On the MSNBC program Hardball on April 11, host Chris Matthews asked McCain,
“You’ll vote with the Democrats?” McCain replied, “Yes . . .”
Likewise, in an encounter on April 27 with participants in a pro-life
Capitol Hill lobby day called REAL Women’s Voices, “McCain argued that he
wanted to preserve the right to filibuster future judicial nominees
appointed by future Democratic presidents,” according to Samantha Cheatham,
congressional outreach director for the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life
organization.
Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, told NRL News, “It is
unfortunate that Senator McCain has joined those senators who are trying to
prevent godly men and women, nominated by their President and supported by a
majority of senators, from serving on our nation’s courts. There is not
going to be a church in America that is not going to know exactly who those
senators are.”
NRLC’s Douglas Johnson commented, “McCain engages in a ludicrous pretext
when he suggests that he wants to preserve the right to filibuster a liberal
Supreme Court nominee. The idea that Senator McCain would offend the liberal
newspaper editorial boards and the other media-entertainment elites whose
approval he so assiduously cultivates, on an issue of that sort, is
implausible in the extreme.”
Press reports have indicated that a number of other Republicans are
undecided, including Senators Chuck Hagel (Ne.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), John
Warner (Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Ak.), and Arlen Specter
(Pa.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
To read a detailed report on recent developments on this
issue, click here.
|
