Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Debate-athon: GOP Senate still talking

WASHINGTON -- They are still talking.

Since 6 p.m. Wednesday, senators have been debating the finer points of how to vote for the president's judicial nominees. The Republicans scheduled 30 hours of consecutive debate, set to last through late tonight, to protest Democrats' rejection of several Bush nominees to various benches.

Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign presided over the floor for about 30 minutes starting at 5:30 a.m. He said Wednesday that he was prepared to stay up all night if need be. He was scheduled to participate in the floor debate for about an hour today starting at noon.

"The purpose of this is to bring attention to what the Democrats are doing," Ensign said.

Republican senators are set to try again Friday to confirm stalled judges and are set to alter Senate rules to limit filibusters against nominations.

Democrats have blocked for circuit court judge nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., U.S. District Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr., Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen and Washington lawyer Miguel A. Estrada, although he withdrew his nomination in September.

Republicans also want votes on Carolyn B. Kuhl of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Janice Rogers Brown of the District of Columbia Circuit, who also may be rejected.

"If we allow for the bench to be so politicized, good people won't come forward," Ensign said, adding that people he has approached to recommend for nominations have turned him down.

Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid opposes the Republican complaints and he says the GOP tactics are a travesty that have turned the Senate into a circus.

"I think these 30 hours are a waste of the Senate's time," Reid said. "I haven't heard a single new word said about how poorly we have treated the president's four nominees."

Reid and other Democrats have used the time to draw attention to the unemployment rate and other economic issues, all the while stressing that the Senate is using the time to talk about four people "who already have jobs."

The Senate has confirmed 168 of Bush's nominees so far, Democrats point out.

"What are we supposed to be a rubber stamp?" Reid said, "He's not King George, he's President George."

Reid does not expect anything to change after the debate ends.

Reid tried to stop or throw off schedule the planned debate with a minifilibuster of his own. He talked for almost nine hours Monday covering a variety of topics, including reading from his book on his hometown of Searchlight -- which, he noted, now has a McDonald's. Filling time, Reid declared his preference for a McFlurry. For the record, Reid's favorite McFlurry flavor is Oreo cookie.

A Capitol newspaper, The Hill, reported Wednesday that Amazon.com ranked sales of Reid's book at 474,148th on Monday, but hours later it went up to 4,804th, thanks to Reid's extended reading on C-Span. Today the book was listed at 69,770th on Amazon.com's sales list.

Reid was more concerned about stamina than book sales however. He said he felt "pretty good" around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. After doing some television interviews he went back to the floor. He left around 2 a.m. but was back on the floor at 8:30 a.m. Reid, who turns 64 next month, does not drink coffee or anything with caffeine. His staff members said they didn't know how Reid was able to stay awake and alert with so little sleep.

For reporters and Senate staff members also working during the debate, the marathon of mouthing was not so much a circus as it was a big sleep-over or college mid-term all-nighter.

Democrats wore bright blue saucer-size buttons with "98%" in yellow numbers to signify the 98 percent of the judicial nominees approved. There were also T-shirts that read "We approved 98% of Bush's judicial nominees" on the front "and all we got was this lousy T-Shirt" on the back. The distributor of the shirt remained a mystery since no one asked would take credit or name names.

Meanwhile, Republican groups handed out pins with a photo of an eagle behind jail cell bars and the words "judicial nominations held hostage."

"Have you seen the cots?" was a common question heard up in the press gallery, usually followed by a mad dash down down the "red hallway" to a room in the Capitol named for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

About 17 cots had been set up in the room for Republican members to catch some sleep throughout the night. Scrap paper with handwritten black marker messages pointed to rooms with people "sleeping" and "not sleeping" with an arrow. It was not clear this morning who took a cat nap.

Snacks were plentiful, with both parties offering up various treats from veggie platters and fruit trays to sandwich wraps and cookie assortments. The constant smell of brewing coffee hung in the air near the Republican press room from an ornate silver pot in the corner.

One Republican office even brought up cans of Rolling Rock beer to the press gallery.

Press conferences took place from every 30 minutes to every hour on the hour through the night.

C-SPAN has televised the entire debate so far and has divided footage into segments on its website. It was to continue its "gavel-to-gavel" coverage for the entire debate.

Democrats kept trying to bring up different pieces of legislation to stop the debate and move onto other topics, but Republicans kept objecting.

Around 10:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, Reid tried to bring up a bill to raise the minimum wage, but was stopped.

He said he was not surprised.

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