Today’s winner is former senator Rick Santorum. When asked if the GOP should filibuster the Sotomayor nomination, Santorum replied:
I’ve never been for a filibuster. You can’t go out and argue, as we did, during the Roberts and Alito confirmations and during the circuit court process, that filibusters are illegitimate when it comes to judges, and then come back and use them now. And if you’re looking at this from the realpolitik perspective, I don’t believe that we could ever sustain a filibuster. The other side can. They are much more power-driven and politically motivated than our side could ever be.
He starts off well, but I have no idea what that last bit even means.
Does he means the Dems could sustain a filibuster now? Well, of course they could. They’re the majority. But just as obviously, that’s a ridiculous point to make, since if the majority doesn’t want a bill to pass, the majority leader simply won’t bring it to the floor, and even if he did, there would be no reason to filibuster it since they have over 50 votes and could simply defeat the bill on an up-or-down vote, without all the fuss and bother of a filibuster.
Does he mean the Dems — because they’re all power-driven and politically motivated and everything, unlike other politicians, especially Republicans — could have sustained a filibuster when the GOP was in the majority?
Well, clearly that’s just as ridiculous a thing to say, since it is a matter of public record that they, in fact, could not sustain a filibuster when the GOP was in the majority. They were so far from being able to do so that they didn’t even bother trying.
So there you have it. Either Santorum believes something patently moronic, or he was just grasping for a hook on which to hang some Democrat bashing.
And since he’s a Republican, and Republicans are not politically motivated . . .
Update (6/26/09 5:54 pm): A post at TWI reminds me that the Dems did, in fact, launch and sustain one filibuster against a Bush judicial nominee: Miguel Estrada.
Tags: Rick Santorum
