Politics: From Slime, Slime
The Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nomination of Bill Pryor to the floor this morning. Senator Hatch, in collusion with several other Republican members, dealt a serious blow, frankly, to the rules that body must obey by essentially railroading the committee into a vote.
After Hatch refused to yield to the Democrats concerns under Committee Rule 4. Rule 4 says that "debate shall be terminated if the motion to bring the matter to a vote without further debate passes with ten votes in the affirmative, one of which must be cast by the minority." That is to say, in this situation, at least one Democrat needs to vote yes to stop talking and call a vote on sending Pryor's nomination to the floor. There was no Democrat supporting, and Hatch refused to acknowledge this fact. Here's the rule in its entirety:
The debate also included Senators Sessions, Hatch and Cornyn adding fuel to the false fire (started by Boyden Gray's Committee for Justice) that Pryor is being opposed because he is a Catholic.
I've read several reports on Pryor from groups on the left, and I don't see a single reference to his religion. There is no, "Pryor, who is Catholic, opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest." No, it's just "Pryor opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest." That's not attacking somebody's religion, that's attacking someone who will have to look at the Constitution, not his bible, to determine whether Americans can live their lives and rule their own bodies.
So it was ugly. They broke the rules, even though Senator Hatch himself admitted that he was a much bigger fan of the rule when Clinton was president and Hatch was the ranking minority member on the committee. They accused the Democrats on the Judiciary committee of anti-Catholic bias, even though Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, and Durbin are all Catholic as well. It was Durbin who summed up the hearing best. No transcript is available yet, but he roughly said the following, which I can't stress enough is a paraphrase:
I couldn't have said it better myself.
The Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nomination of Bill Pryor to the floor this morning. Senator Hatch, in collusion with several other Republican members, dealt a serious blow, frankly, to the rules that body must obey by essentially railroading the committee into a vote.
After Hatch refused to yield to the Democrats concerns under Committee Rule 4. Rule 4 says that "debate shall be terminated if the motion to bring the matter to a vote without further debate passes with ten votes in the affirmative, one of which must be cast by the minority." That is to say, in this situation, at least one Democrat needs to vote yes to stop talking and call a vote on sending Pryor's nomination to the floor. There was no Democrat supporting, and Hatch refused to acknowledge this fact. Here's the rule in its entirety:
The Chairman shall entertain a non-debatable motion to bring a matter before the Committee to a vote. If there is objection to bring the matter to a vote without further debate, a rollcall vote of the Committee shall be taken, and debate shall be terminated if the motion to bring the matter to a vote without further debate passes with ten votes in the affirmative, one of which must be cast by the minority.
The debate also included Senators Sessions, Hatch and Cornyn adding fuel to the false fire (started by Boyden Gray's Committee for Justice) that Pryor is being opposed because he is a Catholic.
I've read several reports on Pryor from groups on the left, and I don't see a single reference to his religion. There is no, "Pryor, who is Catholic, opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest." No, it's just "Pryor opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest." That's not attacking somebody's religion, that's attacking someone who will have to look at the Constitution, not his bible, to determine whether Americans can live their lives and rule their own bodies.
So it was ugly. They broke the rules, even though Senator Hatch himself admitted that he was a much bigger fan of the rule when Clinton was president and Hatch was the ranking minority member on the committee. They accused the Democrats on the Judiciary committee of anti-Catholic bias, even though Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, and Durbin are all Catholic as well. It was Durbin who summed up the hearing best. No transcript is available yet, but he roughly said the following, which I can't stress enough is a paraphrase:
What kind of service we're doing to Bill Pryor? A shabby injection of unseemly ads regarding religion, an unfinished investigation of serious ethical questions, and the icing on the cake is scrapping the rules. What a perfect send-off for the nominee."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
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