Will The GOP Nuke The Constitution? | Arianna Huffington

[AmericanErrorist]

Salivating at the chance to radically remake the Supreme Court, the president and his loyal lapdogs in the World's Most Exclusive Club are plotting to obliterate over 200 years of Senate tradition by eliminating the use of filibusters against judicial nominees.

The Robert's Rules of Disorder scheme would involve — who else? — Vice President Dick Cheney, in his role as presiding Senate officer, ruling that judicial filibusters are unconstitutional and Majority Leader Bill Frist squashing the Democrats' inevitable objection to such an edict by tabling the motion. As long as we're "spreading democracy" abroad, no reason to leave out the home front, right?

Invoking this parliamentary dirty trick would eliminate unlimited debate on judicial nominations and lower the number of votes needed before a nominee can be confirmed from the 60 necessary to break a filibuster to a simple majority of 51, and would drive a stake through the heart of the Senate's longstanding commitment — indeed one of its founding purposes — to defending the rights of the minority.

...this is not just about Roe vs. Wade — it's also about turning the clock back to a time when states' rights and property rights trumped the protection of individual liberties and the ability of Congress to act in the common good on issues as far-ranging as civil rights enforcement, environmental protection, and worker health and safety.

President Bush is pulling on his oversized Stetson and gearing up for battle. And here, unlike Iraq, he's making sure his political troops have all the armor they need. The Democrats need to pre-emptively launch an all-out campaign to educate the American people about what will be at stake during the coming assault on our democratic values.

If they succeed, they will have the public with them, even if it becomes necessary to resort to threats of Mutually Assured Legislative Destruction. Let's hope that's not what it will take to protect the Senate, the Constitution, and over 65 years of hard-won social victories from the GOP's looming nuclear winter.

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=750

[Ruffhowse]

1. The American people are oblivious to this threat to the current structure

of our society. If the Repugs get solidly far right conservative control of the Supreme Court, Americans will find themselves in quite rapidly in a very, very different country. We will lose the benefits of the Voting Rights Act, civil rights legislation will be struck down, the right for women to control their own bodies in terms of abortion and contraception will be gone, environmental legislation will be totally gutted, rampant segregation will raise it's ugly head in the south again, free speech rights will be cut back, freely consenting adult sexual activity will be turned into various types of crimes, and separation of church and state will be a thing of the past. Folks, you need to WAKE UP and start to take action on this or plan on living in Amerika real soon.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Excellent piece, and tremendously important!

[unblock]

3. will?

:shrug:

[robbedvoter]

4. A bit late and lame. Read Krugman for more lucid analysis.

[GOPBasher]

5. I love Huffington. I can't believe she used to be a conservative.

Of course, she was a true conservative, not a theocratic, fascist, plutocratic, right wing nutcase, like the Republicans now.

[TwentyFive]

6. Corporations & Evangelical Christian Churches are gonna love this!

All the hard work and $$$$$$$$$ in political contributions are finally paying off.

While everybody was looking out for liberals, terrorists and same-sex couples....the fascists & theocrats snuck in the back door, blew the safe open and set the building afire.

[w4rma]

11. Fundamentalist, not Evangelical.

Fundamentalism deals with how the Bible is INTERPRETED.

Evangelicalism deals with spreading the gospel, whever gospel that might be, however that gospel might be intepreted.

[0007]

7. Absolutely!

more.....Senate rules regarding filibusters are not something most Americans will find themselves discussing over a glass of eggnog during the holidays. But the impact these rules can have on our lives is staggering. And it must be made clear right now – not when Chief Justice Rehnquist resigns and Cheney and Frist team up to push the nuclear button. By then it will be much too late, and all Harry Reid will be able to do is duck and cover. True leadership is being able to see not just the crisis staring you in the face – but the one lurking just around the corner.

I think everyone is dumb struck to say anything about the on coming overwhelming crisis.

[TwentyFive]

10. It's amazing how dumb Americans are!! Dumb Americans!!! HA - I said it!

This country is going to hell because stupid-cow baby boomers are headed to the slaughter - and are running as fast as the can. They soak up all the lies told to them by fox news and cnn, etc.

The ignorant bastards that voted for bush deserve to live under his corrupt dictatorship. Actually, they deserve much worse, but that's for another post.

[hraka]

21. Problem is

I didn't vote for the f*er and I'm going to be singled out. Those people who voted for him (I'm not talking about the scared I-don't-think-Kerry-can-get-us-out-of the-war people) are going to be the people who benefit. They're targetting the ones who didn't vote for him. The liberals, the gays, the feminists, the educated, the middle class, the blacks - the list is long. These are the people who are going to be hurt by his Supreme Court appointments.

[0007]

8. dupe

[0007]

9. ng

[Demrock6]

12. We should make a list of all the rules *'s team bends and breaks

just to see what kind of a list we get.

[Bill ORights]

13. Starting with the Patriot Act

Every semester, I hand out to my students a copy of the Bill of Rights with AP's list of Patriot Act I's effect on/damage to the Bill of Rights. But I don't have a list of all the Patriot Act II sneak-in riders that have passed since then. Does anyone know where I can find a list?

[ashmanonar]

14. legislative transparency?

what, the right wing legislature would actually allow the unwashed american public look at "their" laws, created by their "beautiful minds"? astounding!...

ugh...sorry the sarcasm is getting a bit strong...but i'm just feeling very doubtful about actually having any idea of what's actually being done to us by the "legislature"

[muchacho]

15. recreating reality again

No wonder the Right was so up in arms about post-modernism and it's assault on objective reality. It exposed their MO!

[Q]

16. What will Republicans do if they find themselves in the minority again?

They will accuse Democrats of being unAmerican and force them to reverse the rules so Republicans can fillibuster again.

Hypocrites.

[opihimoimoi]

17. Lie Cheat Steal.... then Deny, Distort and Divert, these guys bring new

meaning to these terms. The Pubs are destroying the very thing they say they want to protect by selfish and greedy manipulations. They have nefarious strings on their Hearts.

[Hebegirl]

18. I am slipping

I feel some profound depression, born of fear, coming on like the flu... * submits this b.s. about re-nominating his cadre of torture-supporting crooks when? The day before a holiday weekend! When no one is looking!! We are living under a dictatorship. I know this isn't news. But I have to keep repeating it to myself- the "myth" of the great, free America
is as strong as the myth of the Curier and Ives family, the Leave it to Beaver family of the collective U.S. mind, the always-happy family that doesn't exist. Challenging the myth, for those who don't see the writing on the wall (or blood on the wall, in this case) is next to impossible. I think it's because the myth is a huge defense mechanism. To breach that wall, and wake people up-- it is such a cold, cold, scary morning to wake up to-- to say to oneself, we are living under an oligarchy, a dictatorship.

[opihimoimoi]

19. Please hold steady. Like all bad things, this too will pass.

The damage they are doing however, may last a tad longer and reduce our collective strength in too many departments.

It is us who are awakened to the terror this Bush is mounting on the world through very one sided decision making.However, soon our numbers will prevail as more and more people start to see the real Bush, a fraud.

Nixon enjoyed a victory that took 49 states and only 9 months later...had to resign in shame....and he was a GOP guy. Do I dare hope Bush has to resign? Yes I do.

as they say in China, "Shit can happen both ways"

you know, the Ying Yang thingy

[procinderella]

20. Sound familiar?

"he national government will maintain and defend the
foundations on which the power of the nation rests. It will offer
protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.
Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our
culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the
recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the
press . . . in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which
has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal
excess during the past few years."

--Adolf Hitler

[hraka]

22. Whoa. Kick

[UltraDem]

23. We should remind them...

of all the times *they* filibustered our judicial nominations!!

Those hypocrites!!!

[aphonic]

24. democracy endangered:

I submit that American democracy is endangered because of (1) the growth of an entrenched plutocracy with enormous wealth and power; (2) the emergence of global mega-corporations allied with the military-industrial-technological complex; (3) the virtual domination of the media of communication by media mega-corporations (a media-ocracy); and (4) the danger that we are becoming a quasi-theocracy: one nation under God while unbelief is considered un-American.

We need to ask: are we already in a post-democratic stage? Is it still possible to stem this tide and restore American democracy? In my optimistic mood, my response in the short- and mid-run is “Yes, we can,” but we face enormous political battles. In the long run, we need to embark upon a New Enlightenment, defending reason, science, free inquiry, and nonreligious ethical alternatives—if there is still time to do so.

In my pessimistic mood, I recognize yet another source of danger to democratic institutions. It is virtually impossible for any one nation-state (democratic or nondemocratic) to solve its economic, cultural, social, and environmental problems alone. Neither France nor Germany, China nor Brazil, Britain nor the United States is capable of dealing with these problems in isolation from their impact on others in the world. For the problems we face are planetary in scope. The Europeans have discovered this truth, and they are working hard to strengthen new European institutions—a European Parliament and a new Constitution—and of course the World Court.


--Paul Kurtz "Is America a Post-democratic Society?
How to Preserve Our Republic"

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/kurtz_25_1.htm

The removal of meaningful congressional review of judicial candidates is only a symptom of a more systemic danger to our democracy promulgated by our current administration and the neocon control over a seemingly hypnotized populace. Neocons seek not only a way to implant judges with impunity, but to gain control of the judiciary in its entirety. When control of all branches of our government fall to a single party mindset, our democracy will be on its knees, control wrestled from the hands of the people and handed over to a totalitarian regime. The will of the majority will run roughshod over the rights of the minority. This is nothing short of the total destruction of egalitarian ideals set forth by the founders of our democracy.