CNN.com – Bush: Stop ‘ugly politics’ over judicial nominees – Nov. 13, 2003

President Bush called for a stop to the ”ugly politics.”

”It’s wrong and it’s shameful, and it’s hurting the system,” he told reporters.

What’s wrong with this picture? First, only one of these nominees has been blocked. Not depicted is William Pryor who is virulently anti-choice. See the photos of Bush signing anti-choice legislation for the true image of our theocracy. mjh

Democrats said that 98 percent of Bush’s nominees have been confirmed, and that the filibuster is a long-standing Senate rule to block ideological nominees who are out of the mainstream.

Democrats also said Republicans used filibusters to block far more of President Clinton’s judicial nominations, and accuse Republicans of making a big deal of the Democratic filibusters to make the Democratic Party look bad. …

“Well, here we go, more complaining and more upset from the other side,” said Barbara Boxer, D-California, on the floor of the Senate. “They just didn’t get 100 percent of what they wanted. They only got 98 percent. The score, 168 to 4. You can print other charts, but here’s the truth.”

“This is a phony filibuster on a phony issue,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said Wednesday, on CNN’s Judy Woodruff’s “Inside Politics.”

Leahy, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, said Republicans used Senate rules to torpedo 63 judicial nominations made by President Clinton.

The Radical Right gets self-righteous when challenged. They contribute mightily to politics turning “ugly”. One of Bush’s greatest lies of the 2000 campaign was the he is “a uniter, not a divider.” BUllSHit! mjh