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Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Senator Reid, We've Got Your Back
Posted by Bob BrighamEvery day, Nevada Senator Harry Reid looks out for us. On the brink of the GOP attacking the institution of the United States Senate with the "Nuclear Option", he needs us. Senator, I got your back. But he could use you too.
I've signed up at www.Democrats.gov, so I get email briefings from the Minority Leaders "war room" keeping me in the loop on what is going on in the upper chamber. If you care about politics, you should probably go sign up.
In one of the most amazing uses of the internet for participatory democracy, Senator Reid wants our statements on the nuclear debate -- so he can use them on the floor. I am overwhelmed by how much Senator Reid "gets it" when it comes to the internet. He wants to use the internet to involve people, instead of just talking at them and asking for contribution. He wants more debate, more participation, more voices, and more people involved in politics.
There is very stark contrast between Reid's involvement in trying to save the filibuster and Frist's attempts to shut down debate. In know Swing State Project is read by some brilliant people. So throw an idea, send him your words so he has the ammunition necessary to win the nuclear war the GOP is hell-bent on launching. Here is his email:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has informed me that tomorrow he will bring the nominations of Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to the floor of the United States Senate. The Senate has already rejected both of these judges and now Bill Frist is threatening to impose the “Nuclear Option”, effectively ending free speech in the Senate, breaking the rules to end Democrats right to filibuster, in order to pass these extreme nominees.Next week I need all of you on the Democrats.gov email list to stand with us. I want to use your voice as part of this debate. Tell me and in fact the American people why this debate is important to you and I will use some of your statements on the floor.
http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfm
George Bush has gotten more than 95% of his judicial nominations confirmed – but it isn’t enough. The “Nuclear Option” is just another example of Republicans striving for absolute power in Washington, DC. They don’t have the votes to pass these nominees so they abuse power and break the rules to get their way. If they win, it spells the end of the checks and balances the founding fathers envisioned in our constitution.
http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfm
And if that wasn’t enough, the judges George Bush has chosen to serve on the federal courts are simply unacceptable because of their actions and judicial temperaments. Janice Rogers Brown has called Social Security a form of “cannibalism” and has consistently used her position to advocate for an extreme ideological agenda. In one opinion she argued that racial slurs are protected by the first amendment, even when they rise to the level of illegal race discrimination.
Priscilla Owen is no better. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales - who is now Attorney General– served with Owen and has called her opinions “an unconscionable act of judicial activism." She has even sought to twist the meaning of an important state civil rights law making it much harder for employees to prove that their rights were violated.
This is the most important fight of my political life but working together we can defeat the forces that wish abuse power to destroy freedom of speech in the United States Senate
Lend your voice and stand with me on the floor this week. There has never been a more important time.
http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfm
Thank you,
Senator Harry Reid
Give him your thoughts.
Posted at 03:49 PM in Nuclear Option | Technorati