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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
The Secret Weapon... For Iraqi Democracy Only?
Now that Bush has renominated 20 of his most controversial judicial nominees, the stage is set for another Democratic filibuster and the potential that Republicans might use the "nuclear" option: vote, by a simple majority, to change the Senate rules to eliminate the option to filibuster judicial nominees.
Well, Harry Reid (who is doing a magnificient job so far, BTW) happened to be paying attention, and happened to overhear Republican Senator Isakson's statement on the Senate floor today concerning Iraqi democracy. Here's a video clip of it, which is worth a watch.
But here's Reid's statement explaining the statement, if you don't want to watch it:
SEN. REID: What I wanted to do is read a statement made by Senator Isakson
today on the Senate floor.
He said, with his meeting in Iraq -- about his meeting in Iraq, "And
even though the results of the election were not complete at the time we were
there, we knew they would be in a minority, and we asked, 'Don't you fear that
the Shi'ites inevitably being in the majority, that you'll be overturned?' He
says, 'Oh, no, we have a secret weapon.' Mr. President, this is a Kurdish
leader, of course, in the middle of Iraq, in the 21st century, who said he had a
secret weapon. And we asked what the secret weapon was, and he said,
'Filibuster.'" ...
And why, pray tell, did this Kurdish leader tell Isakson the Iraqis needed a filibuster?
"To ensure that the majoirty party never overran the minority."
So, it's good enough for Iraqi Democracy, but not for American Democracy. Reid rocks. He's a fighter and he's got a bit of Truman in him. I've been an admirer of Reid's ever since he almost single-handedly convinced Senator Jeffords to switch parties, but I admit that I was skeptical of Reid taking over as Minority Leader. So far, given the way that Senate Dems have held together on Social Security and other issues, I have been pleasantly surprised.
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