Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Forget we ever said anything

From the Center for American Progress:
Conservatives who are now fully embracing the filibuster as a tool to thwart passage of Iraq redeployment bills are the very same lawmakers who were calling for the "nuclear option" in 2005. At the time, Republicans held 55 seats in the Senate and were constantly voicing anger over the "obstructionism" of Democrats, who objected to the confirmation of a few right-wing judicial nominees. In 2005, the majority called for upending the practice of filibustering judicial appointments.

Now, those same senators -- who are currently in the minority -- have been constantly deploying the threat of a filibuster. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) previously said the filibuster was "bad for the institution. It's wrong. It's not supportable under the Constitution. And if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I'm perfectly prepared to blow the place up. No problem."

Now, Lott, along with Kyl, are using the filibuster to provide political cover for President Bush and prevent passage of legislation that retains the majority support of Americans.
So it's only bad if the "other people" do it. Judges are only "activist judges" when they disagree with what you want them to do, policies are only wrong if they aren't your policies, behavior is only criminal or immoral if the other guys do it.

I know that both sides (all sides?) do this sort of thing. My astonishment here is that the republicans made such a huge deal about how the filibuster was baaaaad, and how it was obstructing the workings of the government, and how we simply shouldn't tolerate those damned democrats trying to frustrate Bush's grand plan.

Now? They are more than happy to use exactly the same tactics, do exactly the same things they accused the democrats of...but now it's a gooooood thing, and they're protecting us. Seriously, shouldn't their heads explode from the hypocrisy?

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