But wait… I thought the King County Council was officially nonpartisan…?
When Constantine is sworn in next Tuesday, that will leave eight councilmembers to decide his replacement: four Democrats and four Republicans.
Five Democrats, including Constantine, voted for the selection process while all Republicans voted against it.
Voters last year made council elections nonpartisan, but members continue to caucus and sometimes to vote along party lines.
And this from the same paper that railed against Constantine for injecting partisanship into the King County Executive race. Perhaps the editorial board at the Seattle Times should try reading their own news section once in while?
Constantine should be replaced by a Democrat.
Because Republicans are against Democrats, they shouldn’t be allowed to vote on Constantine’s successor. His replacement should be chosen by the nonpartisan Democratic caucus on the council.
Along a similar vein, NPR was reporting this morning about the difficult process of federal judicial appointments. They pointed out that Democrats had blocked several Bush appointees from being confirmed by threatening to filibuster any confirmation vote. At the time, the Republicans argued strongly that the Bush administration, and the nominees, were “entitled” to an up-or-down vote in the Senate, and condemned the Democrats for playing politics with judicial nominations.
The deadlock was broken when a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans agreed to not filibuster judicial nominations except in “extreme circumstances”. Dozens of Bush nominees were then confirmed to the federal bench at the district and court of appeals levels.
Now the very same Republicans who condemned the Democrats for blocking Bush’s appointees are going back on that agreement, arguing that EVERY Obama nomination is an “extreme circumstance”, which somehow they seem to be able to utter while keeping a straight face.
@3
On the other hand where the fuck is the caucus discipline? Between the couple of remaining sane Republicans and the 59 or 60 dems (depending on which side of the bed Lieberman woke up on) there shouldn’t be 40 votes to block a judicial nomination.
For that matter why the hell don’t the democrats pull the “nuclear option” out of the bag?
Goldy–
Here is where the “partisanship” is headed nationally. Read & weep………..
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Chris Stefan spews:
Because some Democrats are bright enough to know that doing so would be the end of the line for the Dems and the R’s could undo the nonsensical Far-Left Health Care scam once they regain control of both Houses and the Presidency in 2012.
Perhaps the editorial board at the Seattle Times should try reading their own news section once in while?
What’s the point? King Blethen told the newspaper staff what to think then and he tells them what to think now. Why should they care about the past? Paychecks are written only in the present.
Personally, I think the first time the Republicans trotted out the filibuster threat, the Democrats should have called them on it. Bring in the cots, keep Congress in session 24/7, and make them take turns reading from the local telephone book or some such nonesense. Then post hourly videos of how Republicans are wasting the time of the Senate with meaningless dribble while holding up needed legislation while the economy is in crisis mode.
The Republicans forced the Democrats to take similar measures just to keep Bush from pushing through a batch of recess appointments. We might as well let them do what they threaten to do, and call their bluff.
Why do we have to be the “reasonable” ones all the time? It’s like trying to deal with the whacko family member during the holidays, when everyone has to tiptoe around trying not to provoke him/her into doing something stupid.
Cynical @5,
Man… your Republicans sure do well in polls the year after the election. I fear for Obama in 2013.
Well rhp6033, you can see the paper trail from these extremos. Fer instance rhp6033 Judge David Hamilton, up for Court of Appeals said he’d do this… “Judge S. Hugh Dillin of this court has said that part of our job here as judges is to write a series of footnotes to the Constitution. We all do that every year in cases large and small.” PuddyEmphasis
Or rhp6033 look up “Hinrichs v. Bosma” Page 15 Jesus prayer bad. Page 16 Allah prayer well… it may be okay.