Ethics

Exchanging Scripts on Judicial Filibusters

By Ed Brayton

Radley Balko has begun a series he calls HackWatch to document politicians suddenly taking positions totally in opposition to what they said previously out of political convenience. This never happens as flagrantly as when power is transferred from one party to another. And he has found an absolutely brilliant example in Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona.

Remember the battles a few years ago over the Democrats filibustering Bush's judicial nominees? When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House from 2001 to 2007, they tried again and again to eliminate such filibusters, howling in outrage at the terrible unfairness of not allowing every single judicial nominee an up or down vote. Doing away with the filibuster, you may recall, was referred to as the "nuclear option." Here's Sen. John Kyl, a conservative Republican from Arizona in 2005 grandly declaring that not only must such filibusters be stopped, but pledging to never, ever change his mind when a Democrat is in the White House:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).