Republicans Go Shameless Once Again

Shameless Republicanism.

Back in the halcyon Bush days, when the GOP had delusions of Karl Rove controlling a decades long majority, the Republicans re-wrote laws and positioned Democrats as un-Partriotic for holding up the process.

Case in point, Bush appointing judicial vacancies in an attempt to stack the Federal Courts.

By 2003, a group of senators led by Orrin Hatch had completely re-written the rules on senatorial objections to would-be judges.

Left without the traditional tools, Senate Democrats started filibustering the most extreme right-wing nominees. This, Republicans said, was literally unconstitutional and an affront that tore at the fabric of our system of government. "Advice and consent," the GOP said, meant giving every judicial nominee an up-or-down vote. Anything else, they said, would be an outrageous insult to our democracy.

Now that Republicanism is dead and Bush is pre-jail, the party of faux-morality has taken a 180 degree turn on its stance when Obama is filling these same vacancies. They suggest:

"President Barack Obama should fill vacant spots on the federal bench with former President Bush's judicial nominees to help avoid another huge fight over the judiciary, all 41 Senate Republicans said Monday."

"Regretfully, if we are not consulted on, and approve of, a nominee from our states, the Republican Conference will be unable to support moving forward on that nominee," the letter warns. "And we will act to preserve this principle and the rights of our colleagues if it is not."

In other words, Republicans are threatening a filibuster of judges if they're not happy.

As The Washington Monthly points out:

Even by the standards of the congressional GOP, this is truly ridiculous. The same people who said judicial filibusters were literally illegal are threatening to launch judicial filibusters. What's more, they also want to see the failed former president's unsuccessful judicial nominees put on the federal bench for life -- just a gesture of goodwill.

They want Democrats to use Bush's, the worst President in history, appointees?

The "up and down vote" argument has been shelved. Their passionate arguments about Bush being able to stack the courts with like-minded judges, enjoying lifetime appointments, are but a memory. Remember their Bill Frist and the "nuclear option" to end Democratic filibisters?

As they saw it, an elected President had powers to do what ever he wants under their Unitary Executive Theory. Except when he is a elected Democrat. The whole "they were for it before they were against it" line rings true.

It's one thing to want to stack the deck in your favor, both parties want that. It's that the Republicans re-wrote the rules just a few years ago to their advantage and now want to change them after their Party has imploded that takes the cake.

Just settle into your loser role and stew on the fact that unelected guys like Rush are your your leaders. All this talk of attracting the hip-hop crowd and how you use twitter and it's a guy on AM radio who dominates your world.

Source: Washington Monthly