MoveOn.org sent the latest installment (PDF) in the liberal clown show attacking the “nuclear option” to their members last Thursday. (For past installments in this series, click here.)
The opening passage gives you a flavor for the level of idiocy:
Radical Republicans are reaching for absolute power to appoint Supreme Court justices who favor corporate and extreme-right interests over the rest of us – and we only have a few weeks to stop them.
Their plan is to throw out 200 years of checks and balances in the Senate, by silencing the minority party for the first time in American history. It’s a maneuver so outrageous that even Republicans call it the “nuclear option.” It will take 51 senators to defeat them, and the vote is probably less than a month away.
The Republican leadership is working overtime to keep their plan out of sight, because they know most Americans oppose their bid for absolute power. To fight back, we need to expose them on the nation’s editorial pages, and demand that our senators stand up against one party rule.
A later passage continues:
The “nuclear option” calls for Dick Cheney to use a parliamentary trick to overturn the 200-year-old right to filibuster judicial nominations. A filibuster is simply the right of a group of at least 41 concerned senators to extend debate and delay controversial votes. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can twist enough arms to get 51 votes in support of Cheney’s ruling, the minority party will be completely silenced for the first time ever.
Below are some important points we’ve compiled to help get you started on your letter:
-Radical Republicans want absolute power to appoint Supreme Court justices that will favor corporate interests and the extreme right over the rest of us.
-To get it, they plan to use a parliamentary trick they call the “nuclear option” to overturn 200 years of bipartisan checks and balances that have kept the courts fair for centuries.
-After eliminating the right to filibuster, Bush and the Republicans would have absolute, unchecked power over all three branches of the federal government for the first time in American history.
-While the “nuclear option” is likely to come up in a fight over an Appeals Court nominee, make no mistake – the real targets here are the 4 Supreme Court seats likely to turn over in the next 4 years.
-Republicans have taken millions of dollars from their corporate backers. Now as payback, they’re trying to force through judges who will favor those same corporate interests by overturning laws protecting the environment, civil rights, and workers — laws these companies have been trying to get rid of for years.
Just to reiterate a point I’ve made before, the “nuclear option” would not “silence” Senate Democrats, which could still pontificate at great length against judicial nominees. Nor would it give the Republicans “absolute power,” which is just a ridiculous claim (has anyone heard of the separation of powers or the Constitution?). Also, where’s the evidence of a “200-year-old right to filibuster judicial nominations”? The oldest example of a successful judicial filibuster that I know of was Abe Fortas in 1968. And finally, it’s not true that a single party has never had control of all three branches of government before. After the 1948 election, for instance, Harry Truman was President, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court was dominated by Democratic nominees.
How stupid does MoveOn think its members are? This is hysteria.