Nothing focuses the mind, the expression goes, like the sight of the gallows. And so it is for beaten and battered Senate Republicans when it comes to the use of the filibuster to block the judicial nominees of President Barack Obama. After years of insisting President Bush's picks for the bench deserved an "up or down vote," Arizona Senator Jon Kyl and his allies in the GOP minority are now threatening to turn to the judicial filibuster. Of course, after two consecutive election day drubbings and a record-setting term of obstruction in Congress, the Republicans' deathbed conversion comes as no surprise.

Addressing the conservative Federalist Society last week, Senator Kyl fired the first salvo in the coming battle for the future of the judiciary. Regurgitating tried and untrue Republican talking points about so-called "judicial activism," Kyl warned his audience that he would filibuster Supreme Court nominees he deemed too liberal...

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Inside Perrspectives
Lincoln, King and Obama Perhaps lost in the excitement and emotion of Obama's victory speech was just how truly American it was. Weaving into his address the words of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., Obama tapped into the noblest tradition of American national unity... read more...   Election Day Wins for Reproductive Rights With the defeat of the McCain/Palin ticket and its extremist anti-abortion platform, Americans voted against an abrogation of women's reproductive rights. And by rejecting draconian ballot measures in Colorado, South Dakota and California, voters protected a woman's right to choose - at least for now... read more...   The GOP War on Religious Freedom No doubt, Senator Elizabeth Dole's attack on Democrat and Sunday school teacher Kay Hagan as "godless" was one of the low points of the 2008 campaign. But as it turned out, Dole's slander against atheist Americans was hardly an isolated case of religious bigotry on the part of the Republican Party... read more...		Obama Wins Affluent Voters Among the lowlights of the presidential campaign was the bogus charge from the GOP that Barack Obama was a "socialist." But to the consternation of sthe right, the affluent in 2008 concluded that to do well, they needed to do good by putting a Democrat back in the White House,.. read more...   Right Blames Bush Recession on Obama Unsurprisingly, it took less than 24 hours for the conservative chattering classes to blame the Bush recession on President-elect Barack Obama. Of course, the recent bloodbath on Wall Street has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with what John McCain deemed "the fundamentals of our economy" being weak... read more...   Palin Called Hillary Clinton a Whiner If nothing else, Sarah Palin has a short memory. As she returned to Alaska to complain about the media's accurate reflection of her jaw-dropping ignorance and campaign profligacy, Sarah Palin conveniently forgot having called Hillary Clinton a whiner when it comes to the press... read more...
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