WmFBuckley and the Nuclear Option

here's how mr. never-use-a-three-syllable-word-when- a-five-syllable-word-will-do sees the "nuclear option" going down...

Mr. Frist will report the Judiciary Committee's findings on, e.g., Janice Rogers Brown. The committee has approved her by a vote of 10-8. He will submit the recommendation of the Judiciary Committee and ask for a vote.

A voice from the rear: "The senator from Tennessee asks unanimous consent."

That does it. There being no unanimous consent, the naysayers begin to make their points, all of this done routinely, thus avoiding the kind of stage-arresting apocalypse Mr. Smith went through when he went to Washington. No, this is much much more genteel -- you're no longer required to carry a catheter. Legerdemain does its work, and the entire house knows if there is any prospect of invoking cloture, which, to succeed, requires a vote deploying all forces in residence.

Changing that rule would mean that the two or three contentious candidates would be awarded their judgeships by a simple majority vote. Viewing the process beginning to end, you have the nominee appointed by the president, submitting to examination by a Senate committee, and voted into office by the majority of the senators.

That doesn't smell nuclear, but everyone uses the term because changing the number of votes required to end a filibuster means shredding the sheet anchor to windward. The filibuster is held in high esteem as the last refuge against plebiscitary williwaws that storm the popular will, sweeping away venerable threads of sobriety and caution.

That is one view of it. The longer view does rise to nuclear eminence.

it's surprising that, at his age, wmfbuckley's tongue can still wrap itself around a phrase like "plebiscitary williwaws that storm the popular will, sweeping away venerable threads of sobriety and caution..." in less genteel terms, i suggest that he take his impressive vocabulary and sailing metaphors and shove them a considerable ways up his gentlemanly posterior... i honestly don't know why anybody still pays any attention to this pretentious horse's patoot... he used to be good for a laugh when he appeared on jack paar but that was about it... (omg, am i showing my age or what...?)

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