Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Salute to Lindsey Graham

Below is a video of Senator Graham explaining why he is the sole Republican Senator on the Judiciary Committee to support the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court.  If he can make Democratic Senators like Dick Durbin re-think the way he might approach Republican nominees in a future Republican administration, hasn't Lindsey Graham done more for his party, while at the same time doing more for the spirit of bi-partisanship, than the lockstep obstructionism shown by most of the Republican members of Congress?



Meanwhile, the State of West Virginia had to scramble to appoint a replacement for Senator Byrd, just so that the Senate could get the votes needed to overcome a filibuster against extending unemployment benefits.  It seems to me that if you want to oppose extending unemployment benefits, fine, an argument can be made for that.  But is that a matter of principle that justifies a filibuster?  We need more of the spirit of cooperation and respect that are shown here by Senator Graham, because that is the only way that Congress is going to be able to function effectively in the future, regardless of which party is in power or the extent of their majority.
Posted by Joe Markowitz at 12:15 PM
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5 comments:

  1. Yes... no doubt the same spirit of cooperation that was evident a few years ago when the minority left was filibustering judicial nominations.
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  2. Cooperation begets more cooperation. Filibusters invite more filibusters. Somebody needs to break the vicious cycle, and my intent was to applaud Lindsey Graham for trying to do that. The test will come when the Democrats are in the minority again (hopefully that will not occur in my lifetime). Will they resort to the filibuster as much as the Republicans are using it now?
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  3. As I recall, the last "somebody" to break the vicious cycle was John McCain and the Gang-of-Fourteen. History isn't that bad at predicting the future, therefore, the answer to your question is: They have done it before, and They will do it again.
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  4. You know you've got "cooperation" when Olympia Snowe tells you "Enough is enough."
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  5. Cheers to Graham who made the same points at the hearings for Sotomayor a year ago (along with eight or nine other Republicans).

    Relative to benefits extension: Most Republicans were not against extending unemployment benefits. They were against not paying for them. They wanted to direct unused portions of the stimulus monies to pay for benefits. The Dems wouldn't let them near that Cookie Jar! Instead, we give smartphones to smokers, cocain to monkeys, fund more bus stop art and study ants on the other side of the earth!
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