{"id":4250,"date":"2005-05-20T10:14:19","date_gmt":"2005-05-20T14:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4250.html"},"modified":"2005-05-20T10:14:19","modified_gmt":"2005-05-20T14:14:19","slug":"a-couple-of-moderates-fall-off-the-nuclear-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-couple-of-moderates-fall-off-the-nuclear-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"A couple of ‘moderates’ fall off the nuclear fence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final vote on the nuclear option, if there is a vote, remains too-close-to-call. Frist still seems a little short<\/a> of the 50 he needs, but some of the lawmakers who’ve been listed as “on the fence” seem to be falling.<\/p>\n

Oregon’s Gordon Smith, for example, is now officially on board<\/a> with Frist’s scheme.<\/p>\n

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said he had decided to support the GOP leadership’s move as a way to “reinstate two centuries of tradition of voting up or down on judges.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not, however, a big surprise. There have been multiple reports in recent months in which Smith suggested he’d stay with his party on this issue. It’s disappointing, but Smith was never really considered a “must-get” for Dems.<\/p>\n

Chuck Hagel, however, is far more important — and his neutrality seems to be on the wane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., for weeks said he was undecided on whether to back a move by Frist, if it comes. Wednesday, he officially rejected signing on to a compromise. <\/p>\n

“I believe that all of the president’s nominees deserve an up or down vote,” Hagel said, quoted by spokesman Mike Buttry. “The agreement that has been proposed calls for three of the president’s nominees not to get a vote. I could not agree to that. That is unfair and it’s not right.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is more than just disappointing, it’s also a full-scale reversal.
\n
\nIn January, Bob Novak described<\/a> Hagel as part of John McCain’s camp, “with Hagel recalling the dark Republican days of the 1970s when only a handful of Republican senators stood up against the Democratic tide.” More recently, Hagel said<\/a>, “[Y]ou can’t give up a minority rights tool [the filibuster] … you’ve got 100 United States senators. Some of us might be moderately intelligent enough to figure this out. We would, I think, debase our system and fail our country if we don’t do this.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps those presidential ambitions<\/a> are stopping Hagel from doing the right thing?<\/p>\n

Notice, the disconcerting quote came from a Hagel staffer, and not the senator himself, so maybe there’s still some consideration underway. But if Hagel sides with Frist, Dems would definitely need Specter and Warner to get to 51.<\/p>\n

Frist has scheduled the vote for Tuesday<\/a>. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final vote on the nuclear option, if there is a vote, remains too-close-to-call. Frist still seems a little short of the 50 he needs, but some of the lawmakers who’ve been listed as “on the fence” seem to be falling. Oregon’s Gordon Smith, for example, is now officially on board with Frist’s scheme. Sen. […]<\/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-4250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250","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=4250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}