Routine Hypocrisy

When the McClatchy Newspapers reported that the conservative minority in the Senate may triple the number of filibusters, Republicans tried to spread the blame. McClatchy reported:

Republicans also say that Democrats are forgetting how routinely they threatened filibusters only a few years ago when they were the minority, especially to block many of President Bush's judicial nominees.

Routinely, eh? Well, the Institute for America's Future crunched the numbers.

If Bush's nominees were routinely filibustered, how is it that 86% of them are now on the bench? During the Clinton Administration, only 76% of the president's nominees were confirmed.

Further, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (currently suffering his lowest home state approval ratings in the last two years) and his allies claim that "...every measure, virtually every measure with any degree of controversy about it in the United States Senate requires 60 votes. That's the ordinary procedure...".

But controversial judges like Sam Alito, Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor were all confirmed for lifetime appointments by the Senate with less than 60 votes.

The issue at hand is not whether the minority has a legal right to filibuster. Democrats did before, and Republicans -- many whom not long ago threatened to break Senate rules to abolish the filibuster -- do now.

The issue is how they are using that right. Are they trying to act on behalf of the public, or are they trying to continually obstruct the public will?

Considering that the conservative minority isn't interested in bragging about their obstructions, the answer seems to be latter.

Check out Eric Alterman's takedown of the filibuster media coverage.