Make them do it

AP reports Democrats Threaten to Stop Senate Business if GOP Changes Rules on Judge Confirmations. "To shut down the Senate would be irresponsible and partisan," Frist said in swift rebuttal. "The solution is simple: return to 200 years of tradition and allow up or down votes on judges."

Hugh Hewitt comments The battle over judicial nominees grows closer and closer. Democrats panic, and send Harry "Loose Slots" Reid out to explain that the unprecedented filibuster of judicial nominees is keeping the Republic from ruin. Really.

Orrin Judd asks Is there any downside to this for the GOP?

CQ comments Reid starts off by completely misinterpreting the intent of the Constitution's framers..... The change also doesn't eliminate debate on judicial nominations -- it removes the ability for 40 Senators to extend the debate into eternity. Claiming otherwise is nothing short of hysterical..... Since when has majority rule amounted to "absolute power"? Only since Democrats lost their absolute grip on Congress twelve years ago.

Boston Globe reports GOP sees momentum in ending judicial filibusters.... Republican activists working on the issue say they have one last obstacle to making the change -- their second-ranking Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is said to be reluctant to take such a radical step..... But Manuel Miranda, a former top aide for judicial nominations to Senate majority leader Bill Frist, said "circumstances have erased many of those hesitations.... We think we have 53 votes .... The question now is not if but when."

Hugh Hewitt says Calling Senator McConnell: It is Time to End the Filibusters.

CQ comments I understand that the majority whip may not want to create more trouble than already exists in the Senate, but the antics of the Democrats in this session already demonstrate their intransigence..... The rule change will put grown-ups back in charge of Senate business and ensure votes for all judicial nominees. It will still allow for filibusters on bills and policy, where it has some application, but judicial nominees deserve respect and an up-or-down vote once they come out of committee. If Democrats want to influence that process, then they need to start winning more elections, and acting like crybabies on the floor of the Senate will not help them at all. Call the bluff and call the vote, Senator. McConnell says that the Globe article got it wrong, and issued this statement today:

View from the Left
Dr. Steven Taylor calls it a The Coming Nuclear Constitutional Option? and then goes on to say Intriguing. I am increasingly of the opinion that not only is this necessary, that the Democrats are foolish for pushing the Republicans to this point. I remain amazed that the Democrats don’t see the political opportunity here: to allow some of the high profile nominees to have a floor vote, and then use that “reasonableness” to bludgeon the GOP on the other nominees, and further, be in a position to go into the almost certain Supreme Court nomination process as the “reasonable party.” They are, instead, going the other direction, in my opinion..... I really think that the Democrats are radically miscalculating here. As I have noted numerous times: they lost Senate seats in 2002 and 2004 and yet have not changed their approach. This makes no sense.

That is what makes them Democrats.

AaronBurrFan @BOPNews focuses on Just who is Manuel Miranda? Officials familiar with the investigation identified that person as a legislative staff assistant whose name was removed from a list of Judiciary Committee staff in the most recent update of a Capitol Hill directory. The staff member's home number has been disconnected and he could not be reached for comment.... Reached at home, Miranda said he is on paternity leave

If a person used to work on the Judiciary Committee staff but now works somewhere else, why is is surprising that his name was removed from a list of Judiciary Committee staff? And if he was reached at home, why mention that his home number had been disconnected? Maybe he moved.

I am happy to see that the filibustering of judicial nominees may finally be coming to an end, and I hope that the Senate may again get the chance to vote up or down on each nominee.