Through the Looking Glass

You can't make this stuff up:

Restricting the ability of Democrats to block final votes on several of Bush's most controversial nominees "would be particularly offensive to people of color," members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote Majority Leader Bill Frist during the day. "All of the major legislation that today bars racial discrimination in voting, employment and housing was passed after filibusters" were broken, it said.

Say what? Let's try to figure that out. Eliminating filibusters on judicial nominees would be offensive to black folks because the filibuster was used to block civil rights legislation. Must be some sort of reverse nostalgia thing, but it makes my head explode. Here's what Minority Leader and Constitutional expert Harry Reid thinks about the whole thing:

Reid says that the Constitution does not require that judicial nominees get confirmation votes, allowing the minority to block them.

Rather than take Harry's word for what the Constitution says, I decided to go wild and actually read the thing. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2:

He (The President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

There you have it: "... with the Advice and Consent of the Senate" So far, only the Senate Judiciary Committee has issued its consent. The rest of the Senators have had their power to advise and consent, as granted them in the US Constitution, usurped by 41 Democrats. Changing this rule really is "The Constitutional Option."