Tuesday, March 17, 2009

GOP Filibuster Hypocrisy Alert

You gotta love the outright brazenness of the Republican party these days. It was bad enough when they were in power, but now as an increasingly irrelevant minority their demands know no bounds. Their latest temper tantrum is over judicial nominees and they want Barack Obama to know about it. According to a letter signed by all 41 in the GOP caucus, they have committed to using the filibuster if they do not get to "consult" the President about who gets nominated for such positions as Supreme Court justice. Of course, just a few years ago they were threatening to do away with the filibuster altogether.

From The Washington Times:

It also required that some senators go back on their previous positions, but Republicans said it’s more important that Democrats, not Republicans, be consistent.

“We’re not asking Leahy to follow the Hatch position; we’re asking Leahy to follow the Leahy rule,” said a senior Republican Senate official involved with judicial nominations. “Senator Hatch isn’t chairman now, and he wasn’t chairman for the last couple Congresses.”
Clearly, the "P" in GOP does not stand for "principles." I can't wait for next year and their caucus loses another few members. Then they can threaten to filibuster all they want, it won't amount to a hill of beans. Then again, they'll probably complain and demand the Majority Leader lower the filibuster bar to thirty-five or thirty senators.