E. Ralph Hostetter
Wednesday, June 1, 2005

The "midnight palace coup d'etat" organized by some 14 U.S. senators on Tuesday, May 24, added a new dimension to the continuing debate over the use of the filibuster to deny President George W. Bush his right to have an up-or-down vote, based upon a simple majority, in the U.S. Senate for all of his nominations to the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The "junta," principally led by Senator John S. McCain, was made up of seven Republican and seven Democratic senators. In a report presented by Senator McCain, the group agreed to pave the way for an up-or-down simple majority vote on three of President Bush's judicial nominees: Priscilla R. Owen (since confirmed), Janice Rogers Brown and William H. Pryor Jr.

In return, the seven Republicans pledged not to support the so-called "nuclear option" to end filibusters previously used to block judicial nominees.

The reaction of the GOP leadership and other Republican senators suggests that they were not about to be bound by any report from the McCain kangaroo committee. They reserved the right to keep the nuclear option on the table.

The report contains this request: "We encourage the Executive Branch of government to consult with members of the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, prior to submitting a judicial nomination to the Senate for consideration."

This is outrageous! To expect the president of the United States to use a "Mother, may I?" approach to his nominations is infantile.

There is great danger in the approach the McCain group has taken. Those senators have placed themselves in a position to either create filibusters or bring cloture to them. They are positioned, if they ever could stick together, to disrupt President Bush's entire agenda, including Social Security and any further tax reform.

The committee further promises that the filibuster with respect to judicial nominees only will be used in "extraordinary circumstances." To Senators Harry Reid and Charles E. Schumer, "extraordinary circumstances" is any political position slightly to the right of the Far Left.

The Washington Times reports that the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters said such terms as "extraordinary circumstances" and "mutual trust" are meaningless because "Democrats have been shown to be without principle."

"Today's deal not only establishes a minority veto even smaller than the previously maintained obstruction, vesting power not in 100 senators, not in 60, not in 51, but in a small number of 14," the Coalition said.

On Fox News Sunday, May 23, Senator McCain explained his desire to protect the minority, and again on Tuesday night, May 24, he told the Washington Post the accord was "in the finest traditions of the Senate: trust, respect and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority."

Senator McCain is obviously seeking protection for the Democratic minority in the Senate.

Senators Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, Christopher Dodd, Daniel Inouye, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Tom Harkin and others slightly less vociferous need protection about as much as a piranha in a bowl of goldfish.

If Senator McCain knew Senate history, he would hesitate to complain too loudly of the treatment of congressional minorities.

In the 64 years from 1931 to 1995, the Republicans controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate for only four years. They were the 80th Congress (President Harry S Truman called it the "Terrible Do-Nothing 80th Congress"), 1947-1949, and the 83rd Congress, 1953-1955 (the first two years of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's first term).

In the 64 years between 1931 and 1995 Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for 60 years.

The Senate was controlled by Democrats for 52 out of 62 years from 1933 to 1995. Republicans controlled the Senate for six years during President Ronald Reagan's eight-year administration, but at no time during the Reagan years did the Republican Party have control of the House of Representatives.

For 52 of the 64 years from 1931 to 1995 both the House of Representatives and the Senate were controlled at the same time by the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party had wandered in the minority wilderness for so many years in the last half of the 20th century that the late Republican Congressman Charles A. Halleck was prompted to comment: "It was like a bantam rooster wandering about in a barnyard filled with donkeys. The only way to get attention at all was for the little rooster to sidle up to a donkey and say, 'Let's be careful about stepping on one another around here.'"

Senator McCain, wake up – the barnyard is now filled with elephants.

E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is a national and local award-winning columnist.

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