Saturday, May 14, 2005
A Pretend Debate
Stan Janiak, May 13, 2005
The following is a conversation I had with my 10 year old nephew, in which I explained the US Senate committee system and the filibuster. After reading several polls on the filibusters, a lot of people seem to be on the same intellectual level as my nephew.
There are 100 guys in the US Senate, but they aren't like the senators in Sparticus. They don't meet and discuss every issue. They don't have the time, so they create committees. Committees investigate proposed laws, nominations, treaties etc.and are made up of Republicans and Democrats.
If there are more Republican Senators, like there is now, there are more Republican Senators in committees.
Committees have different specialties, armed forces, agriculture, judiciary etc. In the Judiciary Committee, according to the Constitution (the Constitution is a blueprint on how the US government should work), Senators are given the responsibility to provide "advise and consent" to the President's regarding his nominees.
The President says he wants this person to work for him. He sends their name to the Senate and the Senate is supposed to investigate the person and vote for or against letting this person work for the president.
In the 1800s the job of investigating the President's choice of people was given to a committee. After the committee investigates a nominee or a proposed law they report their findings to the full Senate, the 100 guys.
The problem, now, is that the Judiciary Committee is not letting the full Senate vote on the nominees to the Federal Circuit Court. The Circuit Court is to the Supreme Court like a triple A baseball team is to the majors. The Democrats do not want to face a Bush nominee to the Supreme Court. So a minority of Senators are conducting a pretend extended debate.
Time was when a Senator stood up and talked on and on. No one could make him stop unless most of the Senators wanted him to stop. It takes 60 Senators to make a Senator stop talking (or in this case when he pretends to be talking). Nonstop talking is called a filibuster.
It became a pretend filibuster when these guys in the Senate decided that talking forever was too much work and uncomfortable especially if they had to sleep or go to the bathroom. Once a Senator stopped talking a vote could be taken to close debate.
In order for Senators to do their job, they need to make the Democrat (a pretend guy pretending to speak) in the Judicial committee stop pretending he's talking, but they can't do it because they need 60 senators to vote him to stop and there are only 55 Republicans in the Senate who want him to stop.
Its a political thing. President Bush wants judges that support the Constitution as written. Democrats want judges that think the Constitution is only a rough draft and should be updated to reflect the countries' "cultural changes."
And who decides if the culture is changing, the judges. Recently a Supreme Court judge admitted that he voted based on his personal feelings and on laws from other countries. Republicans say this is wrong and that the Constitution should be strictly followed. To do otherwise is to make up laws and that is the responsibility of the Congress not judges.
Since our country was founded years ago, our culture has changed and there is a way to adjust the Constitutionto reflect changes. It can be amended and its been done twenty-seven times.
But the Democrats are not interested in trying to change the Constitution by amendment, since a change would have to be okayed by 3/4 of the states and there are more Republican states than Democrat states.
Democrats feel that most judges are on their side and will changes laws the way they want them changed. They don't trust the American people to make the right decision when voting. When Bush won the last election the Democrats could not understand why the American people voted against their better interests. They know what is best for the people.
The following is a conversation I had with my 10 year old nephew, in which I explained the US Senate committee system and the filibuster. After reading several polls on the filibusters, a lot of people seem to be on the same intellectual level as my nephew.
There are 100 guys in the US Senate, but they aren't like the senators in Sparticus. They don't meet and discuss every issue. They don't have the time, so they create committees. Committees investigate proposed laws, nominations, treaties etc.and are made up of Republicans and Democrats.
If there are more Republican Senators, like there is now, there are more Republican Senators in committees.
Committees have different specialties, armed forces, agriculture, judiciary etc. In the Judiciary Committee, according to the Constitution (the Constitution is a blueprint on how the US government should work), Senators are given the responsibility to provide "advise and consent" to the President's regarding his nominees.
The President says he wants this person to work for him. He sends their name to the Senate and the Senate is supposed to investigate the person and vote for or against letting this person work for the president.
In the 1800s the job of investigating the President's choice of people was given to a committee. After the committee investigates a nominee or a proposed law they report their findings to the full Senate, the 100 guys.
The problem, now, is that the Judiciary Committee is not letting the full Senate vote on the nominees to the Federal Circuit Court. The Circuit Court is to the Supreme Court like a triple A baseball team is to the majors. The Democrats do not want to face a Bush nominee to the Supreme Court. So a minority of Senators are conducting a pretend extended debate.
Time was when a Senator stood up and talked on and on. No one could make him stop unless most of the Senators wanted him to stop. It takes 60 Senators to make a Senator stop talking (or in this case when he pretends to be talking). Nonstop talking is called a filibuster.
It became a pretend filibuster when these guys in the Senate decided that talking forever was too much work and uncomfortable especially if they had to sleep or go to the bathroom. Once a Senator stopped talking a vote could be taken to close debate.
In order for Senators to do their job, they need to make the Democrat (a pretend guy pretending to speak) in the Judicial committee stop pretending he's talking, but they can't do it because they need 60 senators to vote him to stop and there are only 55 Republicans in the Senate who want him to stop.
Its a political thing. President Bush wants judges that support the Constitution as written. Democrats want judges that think the Constitution is only a rough draft and should be updated to reflect the countries' "cultural changes."
And who decides if the culture is changing, the judges. Recently a Supreme Court judge admitted that he voted based on his personal feelings and on laws from other countries. Republicans say this is wrong and that the Constitution should be strictly followed. To do otherwise is to make up laws and that is the responsibility of the Congress not judges.
Since our country was founded years ago, our culture has changed and there is a way to adjust the Constitutionto reflect changes. It can be amended and its been done twenty-seven times.
But the Democrats are not interested in trying to change the Constitution by amendment, since a change would have to be okayed by 3/4 of the states and there are more Republican states than Democrat states.
Democrats feel that most judges are on their side and will changes laws the way they want them changed. They don't trust the American people to make the right decision when voting. When Bush won the last election the Democrats could not understand why the American people voted against their better interests. They know what is best for the people.
# posted by goldencarp @ 12:59 PM 
