One of the most disgusting aspects of the Filibuster debate is how Goopers shout
"this is Unprecedented!" - "this has never been done!" - "this is a break in tradition!" - "never in the history of the Senate, has a Judicial nominee been Filibustered!"
Lies and Liars are Disgusting things.
The "Unprecedented" break in tradition began in 1968, when Goopers Filibustered LBJ's Supreme Court nomination of Abe Fortas. Fortas, who had been on the Supreme Court as an Associated Justice since 1965, was elevated to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1968.
There's more Whoop-ass below
The Goopers didn't want another Warren, so in an "Unprecedented" move [there's that word again], they blocked Fortas from a "Straight Up or Down Vote"!!
Tricky Dick and Strom stand over Fortas, - 'toon by the Late,Great Herb Block
Now for the Goopers who fake ignorance about something that occured 37 years ago, well their is something more recent: Goopers Filibustered two Clinton appointees in 2000 - why that was only 5 years ago (Hmmmm). The Goopers, led by none other than Bill "Nuclear Option" Frist tried to block Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon from a "Straight Up or Down vote." See their dirty hands, on Roll Call votes #37 and #36
But what is more maddening, is how so called reporters, whether in print or on TV, simply nod their heads when some Gooper lies about historical facts:
RICH LOWRY: Well, I think days of 75 to 80 votes on anything are kind of long gone or just in this polarized era where the margins are going to be much smaller. And, I mean, it is a fact with maybe one exception that the filibuster has never been used in this way before. It hasn't.
JIM LEHRER: They've used other process but not the filibuster.
MARK SHIELDS: Abe Fortis was the first.
JIM LEHRER: Abe Fortis was the first, right. OK, we have to leave it there. Thank you both.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/jan-june05/sl_4-29.html
Now Jim Lehrer isn't an idiot...he really isn't. And neither is Gwen Ifil, who recently went mute during her interview with Gooper Charles Pickering.
JUDGE CHARLES PICKERING: This is totally unprecedented. The filibusters have never applied to judicial nominees until 2001. There was not one single judge that has ever been denied at confirmation because of a filibuster until the Bush nominees.
JUDGE CHARLES PICKERING: In fact the filibuster didn't come in until many years later and it has never been applied to defeat a judicial nominee before the Bush nominees.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/jan-june05/judges_5-11.html
Abe Fortas was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 11-5 vote. .
Now these so called reporters know what the Goopers started in 1968 and what they did in 2000. Yet they just sit there and let the guests lie to them , and more importantly, to their audience. And I don't mean to single out The PBS Newshour, because it's that bad on all the news outlets. The papers and weekly mags: they just play along and repeat the lies to their readers. And as Atrios likes to say, "if Clinton did that.." That's right, if Clinton or his surrogates lied about the Filibuster, they would be stopped cold.
So to the MSM or the Corporate Media.... have some self respect, and start acting the same way you would if a Dem lied to you.
