More Bushshit from Congress

5% of Bush's judicial nominees have been fought against versus 35% of Clinton's. That's right. Of the 214 nominees Bush has brought to the Senate, 204 have been confirmed. So what's the problem?

In a word - Bush. The nominees that Bush is insistent should be confirmed have already been rejected. Instead of looking for more reasonable and less radical candidates, he simply re-nominates people who don't even represent most of the more conservative amongst us... Well, he either re-nominates them, or simply appoints them when Congress is in recess.

Unfortunately, in a play to his neo-conservative fundamentalist base, Senator Frist and his cronies are about to push for the 'Nuclear Option' to reward Bush's non-partisan, petulant behavior.

In a play for power as crass as his Schiavo statements were, Frist is gunning for a fight. Here's why:

Friday's Washington Post notes that Frist "risks the ire of key conservative groups that will play big roles" in the 2008 elections if he fails to gather enough votes to proceed with the nuclear option. Manuel Miranda, a former Frist staffer who now chairs the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters, repeated as much this weekend. Miranda called the battle over judicial filibusters "the first primary campaign between Bill Frist and John McCain," and opined that McCain – who opposes going nuclear – "will have no presidential hopes if he pursues this course."

That's right America. Frist isn't doing this for you. This is all about his political ambitions.

So, are you intrigued about the two who just cleared committee? The ones re-nominated by Bush for being too extreme who may be the ones to trigger Frist to 'push the button'? Their names are Judges Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown.

Let me present some of Janice Rogers Brown's own words for your reading pleasure:

My grandparents’ generation thought being on the government dole was disgraceful, a blight on the family’s honor. Today’s senior citizens blithely cannibalize their grandchildren because they have a right to get as much “free” stuff as the political system will permit them to extract...Big government is...[t]he drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms, for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers, and militant senior citizens. [IFJ speech at 2,3]

I would deny [the senior citizen] plaintiff relief because she has failed to establish the public policy against age discrimination “inures to the benefit of the public” or is “fundamental and substantial”...Discrimination based on age...does not mark its victim with a “stigma of inferiority and second class citizenship”....; it is the unavoidable consequence of that universal leveler: time [Dissenting opinion in Stevenson v. Superior Court, 941 P.2d 1157,1177, 1187 (Cal. 1997)]

As for Priscilla Owen, even Bush's own go-to Attorney, Alberto Gonzalez, has gone repeatedly head to head with this woman:

"As a principal architect of the Bush administration’s legal policy, which seeks to turn back the clock on a range of civil rights, environmental, and reproductive rights achievements and to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing ideologues, Alberto Gonzales is now praising Priscilla Owen’s record as a judge," said People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas. "But the best evidence for his opinion of her record as a Texas Supreme Court Justice is what he wrote during the time he served with her on that court. As a Texas Supreme Court Justice, Gonzales repeatedly wrote or joined criticism of Owen’s aggressive right-wing judicial activism. Time and again, Justice Owen attempted to remake the law when it clashed with her ideology. We urge members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to carefully review Owen’s record on the Texas Supreme Court and to reject her confirmation to the federal appeals court."

Conservatives have led at least six filibusters during the Clinton years. In fact, Senator Frist himself, on 3/9/00, took part in a filibuster of Richard Paez, President Clinton's nominee to the Ninth Circuit.

Don't let their lies fool you. Frist is frothing at the bit to throw out our government's checks and balances that were designed to protect us from abusive power. He's the epitome of what's wrong with politicians today. They're so into the game, they forget who they're representing, and why.

And as for those 'liberalist activist judges' conservatives like to slam? According to the L.A. Times, 94 of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. appeals courts were chosen by conservative presidents. On 10 of the 13 circuit courts, conservative appointees "have a clear majority" AND, since 1976, "at least seven of the nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court have been filled" by conservatives.

So let me propose a new word and its definition for you:

Bush-shit (n):

1. Foolish, deceitful, or boastful language shouted loudly to justify gross and abusive behavior.
2. Something worthless, deceptive, or insincere that is presented as something beneficial to the public (such as the "Clear Skies" Act, for example).
   
3. Insolent talk or behavior, typically used by Republicans to blame others for their own wrongdoings, designed to distract and focus attention away from themselves while they rob America blind .

[syn: lying windbag, Oedipus complex]