http://www.hillnews.com/news/111903/reid.aspxNine-hour filibuster gives Sen. Harry Reid street cred
By Albert Eisele
Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid’s Democratic colleagues agree that his nine-hour filibuster last week has bolstered his reputation and solidified his position as heir apparent to Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).
<snip>
It is impossible to gauge how millions of C-SPAN viewers reacted to Reid’s filibuster. But it earned grudging respect from some Senate Republicans.
“TV presence is in the eye of the beholder,” said former Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “Sometimes, people don’t want the smooth, erudite, articulate speaker
. They want a guy that’s just kind of comfortable in his skin, and folksy. I think Harry comes off as soothing in some respects.”
more....
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But it wasn't anything Estrada said that has offended the Democrats, it's what he didn't say during his confirmation hearing.
"Please tell us what three cases from the last 40 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence you are most critical of ... and just give me a couple of sentences as to why for each one," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, asked Estrada.
"I'm not even sure that I could think of three that I would be ... that I would have a sort of adverse reaction to," he replied.
<snip>
"Without that information ... Miguel Estrada will never be a federal judge," said Minority Whip Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/13/senate.estrada/
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Republicans Stage A Hissy Fit
The current crop of Republicans are either the most hypocritical bunch of cynics on the planet, or have the collective memory of a bowl of goldfish. The GOP is up in arms over a handful of judicial nominees that the Democrats have been filibustering for being right wing whack jobs. The Democrats have confirmed 168 nominees, or 98%, which is far too many as far as those of us one the left are concerned! The Republicans cannot seem to recall that 63 of the Clinton administration judicial candidates were blocked by Orrin Hatch and colleagues, who dragged their feet on nominees the last two years of his presidency hoping for to hold out for a Republican in 2000. Getting their wish, suddenly there was a vacancy crisis in the courts. Bush has not put forth moderate or mainstream nominees, but has chosen the worst of the conservative ideologues in order to fulfill the conservative strategy to create an activist judiciary that will enact their regressive social and political agenda.
To highlight the incredible audacity of the Democrats to oppose a miniscule fraction of these creatures, the Republicans staged an official hissy fit. Never mind that important legislation regarding the budget, Medicare and energy policy were all left pending in order to do so. Majority leader Bill Frist scheduled a 30-hour "all-nighter" anti-filibuster filibuster. Minority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was so angry at what he considered a Republican waste of time that he responded by launching a time-wasting filibuster of his own, talking for more than eight hours -- a speech that included goulash recipes, advice on how to keep rabbits out of a garden, and a dramatic reading of six chapters of "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail," his 1998 book about his Nevada home town.
This GOP "reverse filibuster" was a publicity stunt designed by the majority (the Republicans) to pressure the minority (the Democrats) to give up its threat to filibuster against four of Bush's nominees for judgeships. Since the Democrats got 15 hours of that time, they used it to highlight the Republican's incredible hypocrisy, and their incredibly selective memory. The stunt even had a catchy name - "Justice for Justice", and was kindly coordinated for the American television viewing public by that bastion of "fair and balanced reporting", Fox News. In fact, Harry Reid produced an e-mail during the opening hours of the debate that he said had circulated among majority members. It stated that "the Fox News channel is really excited about the marathon," and asked if Republicans would enter the chamber en masse at precisely 6:02 p.m. EST, since a Fox producer wanted to show it live on journalist Brit Hume's evening program. Reid was joined by a colleague, who asked sarcastically: "Are we going to be getting updates on how Fox News wants to orchestrate the rest of this?"
http://www.literalpolitics.com/NewsDay/newsdaynov03.htm
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