More Truth Comes Out

In the wake of the judicial homicide of Terri Schiavo, more information is coming out surrounding the legal team for Michael Schiavo. Here is a link to an article detailing the various conflicts-of-interest:

http://www.torontofreepress.com/2005/cover033105.htm

To quote Ann Coulter:
"Polls claim that a majority of Americans objected to action by the U.S. Congress in the Schiavo case as "government intrusion" into a "private family matter" — as if Judge Greer is not also the government. So twisted is our view of the judiciary that a judicial decree is treated like a naturally occurring phenomenon, like a rainbow or an act of God.

Our infallible, divine ruler is a county judge in Florida named George Greer, who has more authority in America than the U.S. Congress, the president and the governor. No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church!

Compare the Content

Now that Terri Schiavo has died, take a look at the two versions of it that CBSNews.com has posted: the first was posted March 28 BEFORE SHE DIED, the second was posted today, March 31. The main difference is that in the March 28 story, the husband, Michael, was "at her bedside", in the March 31 story, her family was with her....

Short, Sad Life Of Terri Schiavo
NEW YORK, March TK, 2005

This story was written by CBSNews.com's Christine Lagorio

Surrounded by stuffed animals and medical equipment in her small hospice room in Pinellas Park, Fla., Theresa Marie
Schindler Schiavo died TK.

Known as Terri Schiavo, the severely brain damaged Florida woman spent her last months in the glare of the public eye
as a few still images and several seconds of video of her repeatedly broadcast around the world.
She appeared made up
and dressed, although the 41-year-old had not enunciated a word nor made any choices since the 1990 heart attack that
left her body and mind ravaged.

Since 1998, when her husband Michael Schiavo first tried to have his wife's feeding tube and hydration stopped after
she'd been declared by doctors to be in a "permanent vegetative state," Terri Schiavo's life has been played out in
countless courts, the halls of congress and even in the executive office of United States — President Bush was roused in
the middle of the night to sign emergency legislation. The Vatican has even commented on her case.

But Schiavo grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, a shy girl who giggled easily, but who hated to stand out in a crowd.

"She was quiet," childhood friend Sue Pickwell told The Washington Post. Pickwell served as a bridesmaid in her friend's
wedding to Michael Schiavo. "She didn't like the limelight. How ironic is that?"

Terri Schiavo was locked in battle with her own personal image as far back as anyone can tell. She was an overweight
child who only gained pounds through adolescence, reaching at least 200 by her senior year of high school.
She loved popular magazines and idolized celebrities such as David Cassidy, Starsky and Hutch. She only showed her boisterous
side to a handful of close friends.

Those close friends have been telling newspapers that Terri never excelled in school. She sometimes talked about
becoming a veterinarian, but got barely passing grades while in Catholic school.

Her interests during school years are
unclear, though she shied away from boys and parties.

Once in college, she stuck to old friends. She married the first man she ever kissed. She organized the wedding at the
Catholic parish her family ha attended since her youth, Our Lady of Good Council.

She was a month shy of her 21st
birthday when she walked down the aisle.
Terri Schiavo's life as a newlywed exemplifies her small-town dreams.

After Michael and she returned from their
honeymoon at Disney World — a place the Post reports she equated annual visits to as living "a good life" — the
Schiavos lived in the Schindler's basement because they couldn't afford to pay rent.

Despite barely getting by, Terri
Schiavo cut herself off from some close friends because her marriage became her life.
But when the pair moved to Florida two years later, Michael got a job managing a restaurant at nights and Terri worked at
an insurance company during the day.

She made a few friends and began to lose a significant amount of weight.
Most accounts say she ate regularly, or even ate large portions. But medical experts say her loss of weight was too rapid,
and probably due to an acute case of bulimia, which led to an imbalance of electrolytes that caused her heart to stop.

On the evening of her heart attack, according to lawyer Gary Fox, who represented Michael Schiavo in a successful
medical malpractice suit against two doctors who failed to diagnose Terri as bulimic, Terri and Michael had eaten a large
meal.

One account says that after they had finished, Michael rushed to the bathroom upon hearing thumping coming from
behind the door. When he opened it, Terri was lying on the floor.

"She had purged, apparently, or vomited, binged, which is what bulimics do," Fox said.
The account of the incident is unclear, but by the time an ambulance arrived early on a February morning in 1990, Terri
Schiavo had suffered severe brain damage. She fell into a coma on Feb. 25, 1990, and had been in a persistent
vegetative state since.

But Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have hotly disputed that medical diagnosis. They repeatedly say
they see signs of life and get muted responses to questions when they visit their daughter's hospice room.

But because the pair lacks legal guardianship of their daughter, the courts have repeatedly ruled they are not authorized to make
decisions regarding her life, death, or funeral proceedings.

The feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive had been removed twice and then reinserted, once through an emergency
court order and once on the order of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The third feeding tube removal, March 18, was ordered by a Florida judge granting the husband's petition. It ultimately led to her death, TK days after feeding stopped.
Michael Schiavo, who was at the bedside of his wife Terri when she died, told Larry King that he lives now with another
woman with whom he has two children.

"I can love more than one person," he told King. "Everybody can do that."
According to friends and relatives, Michael Schiavo was Terri's only love. His big-but-tight-knit family took in Michael's
bride, and she befriended his siblings, including his brother, Scott.

"It's so sad they've turned this wonderful person into a sideshow," Scott Schiavo told the Post. "It's such a shame. It really
is. The one that's hurt the most here is Terri."
By Christine Lagorio

Now here's the link to the March 31 story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/31/national/main684221.shtml

So many people have trouble with truth.

More on this later.....

The Bible...an "Extraneous Text"????

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any stranger:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/national/29bible.html?

This is a link to a story with this headline:

"Colorado Court Bars Execution Because Jurors Consulted Bible"

No, Alice, that wasn't a typo....we just crossed over into Wonderland.

The article is worth reading, because (I'm not kidding) the Colorado Supreme Court said "Jurors must deliberate in that atmosphere without the aid or distraction of extraneous texts."

I don't mean to shout, but

SINCE WHEN IS THE BIBLE AN "EXTRANEOUS TEXT"?

I mean, gee whiz, it's not like our laws are actually based on Biblical principles or anything.

(For those of you who need help finding a clue, that was sarcasm.)

As if we needed any more proof that: a) the judiciary is running scared and b) the Bible does actually have clout can be found in a later quote in the same story:

"Professor Howard J. Vogel, who teaches ethics at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul and has a master's degree in theology as well as a law degree, said, "I don't think it's a religious text that's the problem here, but rather whether something is being used that trumps the law of the state."

Yes, my faithful readers, the Bible indeed trumps the law of the state..........

Result of Runaway Judiciary?

If a picture is worth a thousand words about the result of a runaway judiciary, then I'll give you two:

Here, Father...I Won't be Needing These Anymore...

Happy Easter........

Mr. Dean Didn't Get the Memo

While perusing various news sources, I found something in the Toronto Star that I will excerpt here for you:

"While Dean wants focused policies, he acknowledged some issues aren't clear-cut and his party must work hard to come up with effective messages.

It will be difficult to win over the many Americans who appear to disagree with Democratic policies on social and moral issues, such as abortion, he said.

"The majority is on our side. We need to figure out how to talk differently about these issues."

"The majority"????

Memo to Howard Dean:

Bush 62,028,772 votes

Kerry 59,026,150 votes

It Wasn't a "Power Grab"

I you read Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution you will find this:

"Section 1.
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."

It's called "Checks and Balances", my friends.......

The Right to Life

Here is a link to a news article at ABCNews.com about Terri Schiavo:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=600041

Here are some excerpts:

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. Mar 21, 2005 — The parents of Terri Schiavo asked a judge to reinsert the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube Monday, following an extraordinary political fight that consumed both chambers of Congress and prompted the president to rush back to the White House.

An attorney for Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, arrived at federal district court in Tampa and filed a request for an emergency injunction to keep their daughter fed.

Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, said he was outraged that lawmakers and the president were intervening in the contentious right-to-die battle. He has fought for years with his wife's parents over whether she should be permitted to die or kept alive through the feeding tube.

"This is a sad day for Terri. But I'll tell you what: It's also is a sad day for everyone in this country because the United States government is going to come in and trample all over your personal, family matters," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday.


This is a signed affidavit of a nurse that cared for Terri:

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/CIyerAffidavit090203.htm

Very disturbing.

And speaking of disturbing, here’s a link to a Washington Post editorial:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45497-2005Mar17.html

In the editorial you will find the following quote:

“The Florida legislature is, for the second time, also acting to force her to continue living.”


Since when do we have to be FORCED TO LIVE???

This AP article uses the same sickening language:

Lawmakers Widen Schiavo Right-To-Die Fight

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050318/D88TGEE81.html

“Right-to-die”?????

Let’s allow America’s founders to speak on this subject.

From the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

This definition is located at: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=inalienable&x=22&y=17

“unalienable”: incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred

According to the Declaration of Independence, Terri Schiavo has a right to LIFE, not DEATH, and that right to LIFE is incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred.

Also, her right to LIFE, according to the Declaration, is secured by a Government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.


This definition is located at: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=starve&x=14&y=11

“starve”: 1 a : to kill with hunger b : to deprive of nourishment c : to cause to capitulate by or as if by depriving of nourishment
2 : to destroy by or cause to suffer from deprivation

According to definition 1a, starving someone is to “kill” them……last time I checked, THAT IS MURDER.

I welcome your comments.

You Mean There WERE WMD's??????

Here's the first of two stories from non-conservative news sites stating that Bush's rationale for invading Iraq WAS CORRECT. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet here it is: BUSH DIDN'T LIE.

Exhibit A

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/international/middleeast/13loot.html

Here's an excerpt:

“In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting.

The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away.”

Then there is this interesting paragraph:

“Dr. Araji said he had no evidence regarding where the equipment had gone. But his account raises the possibility that the specialized machinery from the arms establishment that the war was aimed at neutralizing had made its way to the black market or was in the hands of foreign governments.”

That means that WMD’s WERE there and would have been seized if we hadn’t dragged this through the U.N.

And speaking of the U.N., here is another bombshell:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/12/wsaddam12.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/12/ixworld.html

Here is an excerpt:

“Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction.

The news that Iraq attempted to bribe a top UN official is a key piece of evidence for investigators into the scandal surrounding the oil-for-food program. It proves that Iraq was offering huge sums of cash to influential foreigners in return for political favors.”

Someone please answer this question: Why bribe anybody if there were no weapons of mass destruction?

If George W. Bush were lying about Iraq having WMD’s, why does this story even get past the news editors anywhere? There couldn't have been a reason to bribe anybody IF there weren't any weapons of mass destruction because, according to the Left, Bush lied about it.

And just in case you’re curious, no I won’t be holding my breath as I wait for apologies from Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Howie Dean, etc.

Did You Hear What They Said?

"The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution." --Ronald Reagan

"As voters compare the parties, they see a Democratic Party without purpose and defining ideas"--James Carville

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." --Norman Thomas

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character." --Henry Clay


"It boggles the mind that 36 Democrats would vote against the first Hispanic attorney general out of tender concern for the well-being of terrorists, but there you are." --James Taranto


"Contemporary Democrats are people who can't stand the idea that someone, somewhere is experiencing good news." --Rich Lowry


"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul."--George Bernard Shaw


"Allowing people to opt out of Social Security would force the federal government to admit it has been stealing money from Social Security for decades."-- Rep. Ron Paul


"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light
of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and
superstition, and that every person may here worship God according
to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and
in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's
religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws,
nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest
Offices that are known in the United States." --George Washington


"It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world." --Theodore Roosevelt


"Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands." --Thomas Jefferson


"Too many people -- some of them judges -- seem to think that freedom of speech means freedom from consequences for what you have said. If you believe that, try insulting your boss when you go to work tomorrow. Better yet, try insulting your spouse before going to bed tonight." --Thomas Sowell


"For every year this guy's [Senator Reid] on TV as the official face of the party, you can kiss three Democratic Senate seats goodbye. Right now, the Dems are all exit and no strategy." --Mark Steyn


"It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never
shrunk from its expression...that the germ of dissolution of
our federal government is in the constitution of the federal
Judiciary;...working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a
little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless
step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all
shall be usurped." --Thomas Jefferson


"Appeasers always hope that the crocodile will eat them last."--Winston Churchill

"GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."--Ryndee Carney, GM's manager of marketing communications

"Dean refused to talk to Vermont pro-lifers because, as he put it on a Vermont talk show, he didn't want to meet with common criminals." --George Neumayr

A society that readily tolerates 45 million legal abortions (and counting) and feels a need to 'do something' about the financial 'burden' of the sick and elderly is not likely to be morally aroused at the destruction of embryos, even for cloning and other experimental purposes." --Cal Thomas


"I think we have more machinery of government than is
necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the
industrious." --Thomas Jefferson


"What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint. Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites." --Edmund Burke


"People talk about potential [Social Security] benefit cuts as if they would be war crimes. The unspeakable truth is that benefit cuts are ultimately inevitable, because the baby boom's retirement costs will force them. Social Security and Medicare, according to various government projections, would require at least a 30% tax increase by 2030. The wiser policy is not to wait; it is to pare benefits now." --Robert Samuelson


"we're gonna try to figure it out as we give you Social Security for Dummies -- and we include ourselves in that category by the way." --NBC's Katie Couric

"I don't have the slightest clue who Hillary really is. All I see is a gal who knew she was as good as anyone else, and she saw this guy she could make something of, so she forfeited Illinois and went to Arkansas. That's a hell of a move to make for a redneck, which is all he was." --Rep. Charles Rangel(D) New York

"I don't think it's useful to set a deadline because I think it sends a signal to the terrorists and the insurgents that they just have to wait us out." --Hillary Clinton

"I think religion is a neurological disorder."--Bill Maher

"Because of the taping scandal I suspect that in the future there is going to be one fewer Wead among the Bushes." --Lyn Nofziger

"I'm pretty agreeable to all sides. Let's cut taxes and government spending at the same time. After all, we're told that the best way to lose weight is to combine a good diet with exercise. But such diets are tough. Which is why term limits make sense. Keep politicians moving. Bring in new political athletes who might better whip our government into shape." --Paul Jacob

"Media bias does not consist in having liberal or conservative opinions but in how you do your job -- or don't do it. One document whose authenticity is not likely to be questioned by the mainstream media is the honorable discharge on Senator John Kerry's web site. Yet who in the major media has investigated why that honorable discharge is dated during the Carter administration, when Kerry's military service ended years earlier? This is the same media that spent months investigating George W. Bush's military record and, even after key allegations were revealed to be based on forgeries, continued publicizing rumors and innuendoes. They didn't stop even after the President signed Form 180, opening all his military records to the public. But who in the major media has asked why John Kerry would need to be issued an honorable discharge during the Carter administration, years after leaving the navy, unless his original discharge was less than honorable? ... This is not about the past or ultimately even about Kerry or Bush. It is about the future of this country. A gullible public learning only what is filtered to them by a biased media is not a hopeful sign for the future of a democracy. Some of the public have begun to wake up but more need to do so. Many in the media also need to wake up to what they are doing, or failing to do, when their politics taints their work." --Thomas Sowell

Chaim Lieberman, wrote in 1938 in his epic essay about the Nazi invasion of Austria: 'America is the correction of Europe'." --Jay Homnick

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."--General George S. Patton

"Where we stand right now, there can be no doubt that it is not in America's interests for the Iraqi government, the experiment in freedom and democracy, to fail," Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press February 20, 2005

"There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue,"--Hillary Clinton (http://in.news.yahoo.com/050226/43/2jv1h.html)


"Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity." --Theodore Roosevelt

“I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.”
-- Dan Rather on The O'Reilly Factor, May 15, 2001

“I think the fact that someone has told a lie, even a big lie or maybe several big lies over a lifetime, does not mean that they’re an inherently dishonest person"--Dan Rather on Imus in the Morning, February 7, 2002

"The Constitution...is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please." --Thomas Jefferson

The Constitution Suffers Rape

The U.S. Constitution suffered some serious setbacks this week. The future of liberty and the rule of law suffered likewise.

It's bad enough that Democrat obstructionists are once again denying President George Bush's federal-bench nominees their constitutionally prescribed up-or-down vote by the full Senate. In a fine example of why we need those nominees on the bench, Leftists on the Supreme Court are, again, "interpreting" the so-called "living Constitution" as a method of altering that venerable document by judicial diktat.

Worse yet, these Left-judiciary Supremacists -- Justice Anthony Kennedy and Court Jesters Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens -- cited "national consensus" as a factor in Tuesday's Roper v. Simmons ruling. In other words, they disregarded the Constitution's prescription for federalism and republican government in the name of unmitigated democracy. Which is to say, while riding roughshod over the Ninth and Tenth Amendments as they overturned the laws of 19 states, the Supremes blithely pushed the nation one step closer toward what everyone since Plato has described as governance in its most degenerative form.

Writing for the majority, Kennedy claimed that Americans had reached a "national consensus" against capital punishment for "children," citing as evidence that only 20 states allow a 17-year-old to be sentenced to death. Of course, Kennedy's logic is utterly at odds with decisions such as Roe v. Wade. In that 1973 decision, the Supremes serendipitously discovered a right to privacy that allowed for the aborting of children, despite the fact that all 50 states had laws at the time either prohibiting or tightly regulating abortion. So we must ask you, Justice Kennedy -- what's all this rubbish about a "national consensus?"

You recall, of course, that in a recent case, the Supremacists discovered a clause in the Constitution specifically stating that a 14-year-old is mature enough to abort the life of her child without parental consent. Now, in Roper v. Simmons, they've found a contradictory clause, which avers that a 17-year-old is not mature enough to be held accountable for capital murder.

Adding grievous insult to this "national consensus" injury, Kennedy cited "international consensus" noting "the overwhelming weight of international opinion" as a factor in the Court's decision. Kennedy cited the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when writing, "The United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty." Here, his message was all too clear: The High Court is building a tradition of referring "to the laws of other countries and to international authorities as instructive for its interpretation" of the U.S. Constitution.

Sadly, such citing of international standards and conventions seems to be the latest fashion among the Supremacists.

In 2003, Justices Ginsburg and Breyer upheld an affirmative-action policy at the University of Michigan, noting an international treaty endorsing race-based advancement for minorities. Stevens, for his part, cited international law in overturning another capital case: "Within the world community, the...death penalty...is overwhelmingly disapproved." Furthermore, in Lawrence v. Texas, Kennedy wrote that the European Court of Human Rights has affirmed the "rights of homosexual adults to engage in intimate, consensual conduct."

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said recently, "I suspect that over time we will rely increasingly...on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues." Justice Breyer added, "We see all the time, Justice O'Connor and I, and the others, how the world really -- it's trite but it's true -- is growing together. The challenge [will be] whether our Constitution...fits into the governing documents of other nations."

"How our Constitution fits?"

Justice Antonin Scalia, a dependable constitutional constructionist, protested on behalf of the dissenters that capital punishment should, rightly in accordance with constitutional federalism, be determined by individual states. "Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent. ... To invoke alien law when it agrees with one's own thinking, and ignore it otherwise, is not reasoned decision-making, but sophistry." Just so.

Perhaps Justice Scalia recalls this admonition from Founder George Washington: "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence...the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government."

Clearly, international consensus has no standing whatsoever in the constitutional rule of law in the United States. For that matter, the only relevant "national consensus" is that prescribed by our Constitution for its amendment -- a consensus of the people as represented by two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states. But such facts are lost on Left-judicial activists who are content to legislate from the bench. Just consider this recent comment from Justice Breyer: "The extent to which the Constitution is flexible is a function of what provisions you're talking about." In other words, if he likes it the way it was written, it stands as is. If not, he interprets it, in the words of the august Sen. Sam Ervin, "to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it."

Which brings us to the Senate Judiciary Democrats' filibuster of President Bush's nominees. Plainly, the Constitution intended that Executive Branch appointments be subject to confirmation by the full Senate, and that such consideration not be obstructed by a handful of wild-eyed Leftists such as Ted Kennedy.

Why are Senate Democrats so insistent on blocking the President's nominations? Because they know the real locus of central government power resides on the federal bench.

Many of President Bush's nominees are constitutional constructionists, as intended by our Founders -- those who issue rulings based on the letter of constitutional law rather than interpret it according to their constituent agenda. Yet Kennedy and his ilk are bent on denying consideration of these fine constructionist judges, for they know that the President will likely advance the names of two such nominees to the Supreme Court in this term.

As for the constitutionality of their filibuster, even liberal Georgetown law professor Susan Low Bloch argues that supermajority requirements (to overcome the filibuster) for nominations "upset the carefully crafted rules concerning appointment of both executive officials and judges and...unilaterally limit the power the Constitution gives to the President in the appointments process. This [allows] the Senate to aggrandize its own role and would unconstitutionally distort the balance of powers established by the Constitution." Clearly, then, filibuster as a method for obstruction of Senate judicial confirmations circumvents the Constitution in both letter and spirit.

That has prompted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to consider what he calls the "nuclear option" -- change the Senate rules on such committee obstructions in order to get the President's nominees before the full Senate for an up or down vote -- as constitutionally mandated. In fact, it is the Democrats who have exercised the "nuclear option" by circumventing the Constitution!