Dale Franks argues in favor of a Dick Morris proposal to force the Democrats filibustering judges into an old-fashioned full-time round the clock Jimmy Stewart/Strom Thurmond-style shut-down-all-other-Senate-business filibuster. It’s a good idea both now and in the future, and in many ways preferable to formally abolishing the filibuster entirely. There will be times when it’s worthwhile to do a real filibuster; the Abe Fortas nomination in 1968 was an example, where the nomination was delayed only a week on grounds that more time was needed to air serious ethics charges that ultimately caused Fortas (a sitting associate justice nominated for Chief Justice) to resign entirely from the bench. But the need to do real filibusters would end the practice of multiple indefinite filibusters on strictly partisan or ideological lines.
I don’t agree that the first shot at this should be one of the less nationally significant judges, though; the Republicans might as well lead with their strongest cases.
Meanwhile, Orrin Judd thinks it’s a death knell for the Democrats’ filibuster efforts when Al Gore gets involved.
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The GOP is wounded and Frist is dug in. He isn’t settling for anything less than the nuclear option. The “compromise” offered still allows Dubya to get Janice Brown and her ilk onto the federal bench. Personally, I think the Democrats will have lost if any judges willing to overrule the New Deal regulatory regieme makes it to the federal bench.