Pressure by White House Is Being Applied With Care

[CatWoman]

WASHINGTON, May 18 - At the White House, the official line on the fight over ending filibusters of judicial nominees is that it is a matter for the Senate to decide.

But behind the scenes, the White House, directly and through its allies, is playing an active role in keeping up the pressure on the Senate to assure that President Bush's nominees have up-or-down confirmation votes, Republicans involved in the effort said.

So far, administration and Congressional aides said, the White House has avoided any strong-arm lobbying of Republican senators to end the use of filibusters to block nominees to federal judgeships.

The aides said any heavy-handed pressure from the White House could backfire by making the issue seem less about fairness than about the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, a topic on which senators of any political stripe might be loath to side with the administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/politics/19strategy.html?oref=login

[napi21]

1. The aides are right in their assessment, but we all know it's happening!

I bet the few moderate pubs had to replace the battery in their cell phones because of all the harrassment they're getting over the recent few weeks!

[kaygore]

2. The timing of the base closings was NOT a coincidence

Many are in the states of moderate Republicans, such as Collins and Snowe. I suspect that these will be bargaining chips. What I know for a fact is that no matter what the White House promises, they will do what they want once they get what they want and if they want those bases to close, then they will--no matter how these senators vote.

These are very evil people, people whose word is as good as the disappearing ink with which they write their promises.

[DemoTex]

7. " ..disappearing ink with which they write their promises."

Very well said kaygore. Any kin to Al Gore? Just a thought.

[kaygore]

10. There was a wagon train heading west, in the 1700s,

or so the family legend goes, that was attacked by native peoples. The Gore family had 27 kids (it's a legend so I guess they can have as many kids as they like). The native peoples killed the parents and so the children who were under age were divided among the surviving wagon train members. Thus, we were scattered across the country: The some of the original who came over on the Mayflower were still in the Northeast, the others ended up as the Gores of GoreTex fame in Colorado, the Gores of Tennessee political fame in that state, my dad's family in Michigan, and so on.

Thus, when asked that question, I tell people that they are probably closer related than I am since my group of Gores split off the gene pool a couple of centuries ago!

[Catt03]

3. Look who they meet with weekly

The White House can call on a broad array of conservative groups that come at the issue from perspectives like opposing abortion and gay marriage, as well as legal theory. The participants in the weekly meetings include representatives of Focus on the Family, the powerful Christian advocacy group run by Dr. James C. Dobson, and the Federalist Society, the influential conservative legal group.

[damntexdem]

4. The thing is: if any GOP senators are opposed to any of these judges, ...

then they need to vote to keep the filibuster: they can claim that they are voting for it to preserve the privileges of the Senate, much easier than voting against a Dubya appointee on the floor if the filibuster is nuked. Are there any GOP senators who could be swayed by such an argument?

[librechik]

5. Yeah, right, they'll only sweep in to cast the deciding vote at the end

re-establishing Executive Authority over the Senate, and thus shrinking it down to a rubber stamp for the majority (Pukkkes only)

[oasis]

6. No heavy handed Rove tactics on this issue? America can rest easy.

:eyes:

[Inland]

8. Bullshit. These guys want to be known as all heavy handed, all the time.

Going to go Bolton on any senator that breaks ranks, and they all know it. The last thing the Bushites want to be known for is allowing for someone to say Bush shouldn't have more power.

[oasis]

9. The senators are getting their share of phone calls as we speak.

[kaygore]

11. Keep up the calling

They have their fingers in the wind (and their faces up Karl Rove's you- know-what )

[Dr Fate]

12. I'll assume the OPPOSITE of this article is true. (Think WMDs)

If the media is saying "Bush is not using strong arm tactics" then that means he IS using them.

Who says the media is unreliable- all you have to do is take the opposite of what they say.