{"id":3921,"date":"2005-04-07T11:30:44","date_gmt":"2005-04-07T15:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/3921.html"},"modified":"2005-04-07T11:30:44","modified_gmt":"2005-04-07T15:30:44","slug":"santorum-assures-base-that-nuclear-option-is-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/santorum-assures-base-that-nuclear-option-is-on-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Santorum assures base that ‘nuclear option’ is on the way"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republicans have seemed a bit more indecisive than usual when it comes to the “nuclear option.” Some weeks, their rhetoric is all bravado; other weeks they emphasize compromise. Some weeks, they talk about having votes to spare to pass the change to the filibuster rules; other weeks they’re scrambling to get to 50. Some weeks, the conservative base sounds united behind the tactic; other weeks we learn about significant intra-party fissures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth vacillation reinforces suspicions that the Senate GOP a) may be bluffing; and b) isn’t sure this is a great idea. Nevertheless, Rick “Man on Dog<\/a>” Santorum, who’s been advocating on behalf of the “nuclear option” for more than a year, sounds convinced that the showdown is set<\/a> and Bill Frist won’t back down.<\/p>\n

Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, has reassured conservative activist leaders that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is committed to triggering the “nuclear option,” stripping Democrats of the power to filibuster judicial nominees.<\/p>\n

Santorum met the leaders Tuesday to dispel growing anxiety among conservatives that Frist was wavering over what some Republicans call the “constitutional” or “Byrd” option — a procedural tactic that would disallow judicial filibusters by a ruling of the Senate chair and a ratifying majority vote. […]<\/p>\n

The activist said the message from Santorum was clear: “Man battle stations.” Santorum said that he told conservative leaders, “We have to win” and “we have to have the votes” to confirm the president’s nominees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s fine, but needing the votes and having<\/i> the votes are two very different things.
\n
\nI don’t doubt that Frist and the rest of the Senate GOP leadership want<\/i> to execute the “nuclear option,” but there’s a growing body of evidence that they just might not be able to pull it off.<\/p>\n

* The Republican leadership canceled a briefing of Senate staff and activists by Martin Gold, a former Frist aide and master of Senate parliamentary procedure who is advising Republicans on the issue.<\/p>\n

* Corporate lobbyists continue to urge members<\/a> to steer clear of the tactic.<\/p>\n

* Frist’s stated desire to “strike a deal” lead many to believe he’s backing away from the change.<\/p>\n

* Conservative activists have noticed that there’s not a lot of information coming out of Frist’s office about plans, strategy, and negotiations.<\/p>\n

I suspect Frist’s biggest problem right now is getting to 50 votes, but there aren’t a lot of attractive options left for him. As I noted the other day, if he executes the “nuclear option,” he’s brought the Senate to a halt, poisoned political comity in the chamber, and angered his Big Business base. If he doesn’t, he’s angered his religious right base, strengthened the Dems’ hand, and made something of a fool out of himself by making threats on which he can’t deliver.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republicans have seemed a bit more indecisive than usual when it comes to the “nuclear option.” Some weeks, their rhetoric is all bravado; other weeks they emphasize compromise. Some weeks, they talk about having votes to spare to pass the change to the filibuster rules; other weeks they’re scrambling to get to 50. Some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}