] But there must be something different in the way that the ] Democrats are blocking Bush's nominees, right? The ] Republicans say that Democrats are doing is ] "unprecedented." ] ] ] Oh, yes they do. Just the other day on Fox News, Utah ] Sen. Orrin Hatch, the former chairman of the Senate ] Judiciary Committee, proclaimed: "We've never had a ] filibuster of judges in the history of this country." In ] a myth vs. fact sheet, the Republican National Committee ] says that "having to overcome a filibuster (or obtaining ] 60 votes) on judicial nominees is unprecedented." ] ] ] But that's not a fact. In 1968, Republicans led a ] filibuster against Lyndon Johnson's nomination of Abe ] Fortas as chief justice. And that isn't the only ] Republican attempt to filibuster a judicial nominee in ] recent history. During the Clinton years, the ] Congressional Research Service says, Democrats were ] forced to bring cloture motions on six judicial nominees. ] While the existence of a cloture motion doesn't always ] mean that a filibuster is in effect, in at least some ] instances it has meant just that: In 2000, Frist himself ] voted to support a filibuster against Richard Paez, ] Clinton's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ] Ninth Circuit. This article presents a very good assessment of just what can and can't happen along the lines of the "Nuclear Option." It's not as cut and dry as many would think. |