Moderate Republicans are pushing a bill that would stick to the substance of the Geneva Conventions and Bill Frist says he and other White House allies will filibuster it even though it has majority support.
With Congress scheduled to adjourn in nine days, delaying tactics such as a filibuster could kill the drive to enact detainee legislation before the Nov. 7 elections, a White House priority. Bush faced still more problems in the House, where GOP moderates Christopher Shays (Conn.), Michael N. Castle (Del.), Jim Leach (Iowa) and James T. Walsh (N.Y.) publicly threw their support behind the bill opposed by the White House. The four Republicans told Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) that any House bill must maintain the dissidents' principles...
But Frist struck a more jarring tone, telling reporters that the trio's bill is unacceptable despite its majority support.
Gosh, didn't we hear Frist and others ranting endlessly about how evil and undemocratic it was to filibuster just a few months ago and how important it was for the Senate to do away with filibusters entirely? My how times have changed.
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It's a White House priority to enact detainee legislation? Does that mean Frist is not supporting the administration on this?
Ed,
I hate to defend Frist--whom I consider to be a singularly odious individual--but wasn't the position that he and other Republicans took against filibusters confined to votes on judicial appointments?
That Frist is displaying hypocrisy isn't the weird thing here (I could make a list of things I watched him do while there that never made it out), the weird thing is that the **majority leader** is leading a filibuster. And it's the not the first time Frist has had to do this, either.
Dave-
Yes, but their rhetoric applies in all situations where a filibuster is used. The rhetoric was that the filibuster is undemocratic and obstructionist and thwarts the ability of an electoral majority to take action. If that applies in judicial appointments, it applies just as well in any other.
Hypocrisy by this administration and its supporters is so common that it's hard to get angry about it anymore. I'd be surpised if they spent an entire day being consistent.
Isn't Frist about to go down in the November election?
Pablo, Frist has retired (to focus on 2008). Harold Ford (D) and Bob Corker (R) are vying to replace him.
Ed-
Good point, thanks for clarifying.
This is hilarious. The Republican leadership threatening to filibuster a bill sponsored by members of their own party. If they go through with the filibuster, that should stop work in the Senate until the end of the term, and they won't get any of their own pet projects through, either.
Kind of sad to watch the Republicans scuttling themselves over the issue that they are convinced keeps them in office, security. By sad I mean its wonderful.