Politics and Government in America

Justice Souter’s retirement last week has once again put the Supreme Court in the political spotlight. The hit and run media will spend a lot of time talking about who Obama should pick, in fact, that story has already begun. However, what few people will talk about is the most important story of all.

During the Bush years, the Democrats filibustered  the majority of judicial appointments made during that period. When the Republicans tried clarify the rules and establish that a simple majority was needed to nominate judge, the Democrats and a few maverick Republicans blocked the Constitutional option with the Gang of Fourteen. Now the issue has come up again.

I will be interested to see what happens over the next few months. If Republicans try and filibuster Obama’s nominee then they will open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy.  Conversely, if the Democrats complain about a Republican filibuster then they are the ones that could be called hypocrites. Either way, the upcoming nomination process is going to create an interesting political landscape.

The real question is going to be, where will the Gang of Fourteen land when this goes down?  They were the spoilers in the last few nominations and it will be interesting to see what they do to remain the center of attention. I believe that conservatives should filibuster the nominee if they are left of center.  I also believe that this is also the best shot that we have of enacting the Constitutional option. It’s time to end the stranglehold on the courts that the left has had, and in ironic fashion, the best way to do it is to force the left to give us the tools.