Nelson A. Pryor: Guest Columnist
Yes, Senator Bill Nelson, has just announced that he will be voting against the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, to the U. S. Supreme Court. He also said that he would join fellow Democrats, in a Senate filibuster, to try and block the nomination from even getting an up or down vote.
Bill Nelson
The three-term Senate Democrat is an interesting man to me. This columnist first met the Senator somewhere around 2003, in Madison. Surprisingly, the afternoon before his arrival in the city, the Madison Enterprise-Recorder, was informed that he was going to make an appearance at the local community college. I thought: “What, no advance publicity. What’s he afraid of. That citizens of Madison would use pre-publicity and organize to treat him unfairly?”
What a Shock!
About 15 “community insiders” were invited and attended his appearance. What a performance! The whole hour of his event was spent on his railing against Washington. As he called those people up there: the KNOW IT ALLS! The KNOW IT ALLS? What’s that about?
A big man in space, and a sitting U.S. Senator, in the greatest nation in the world, and he’s miniaturized his record, Florida, and himself, into a nothing.
Inferiority Complex?
His present forthright position, avoiding irritating the perpetually irritable left wing of the Democratic Party, may stave off a primary challenge, but opens up the question of his re-election chances with the main stream of the State. Has his inferiority complex driven him to abandon North Florida values? Playing the big man to the perpetually irritable liberal wing of the Democrats won’t win his re-election through the votes of North Floridians.
The Numbers
As of Monday, at least 35 Democrats had come out against the constitutionalist, Gorsuch, with so-far three Democrats saying they would not uphold a filibuster. The 52 Senate Republicans need at least eight to join them in cutting off debate and forcing an up or down vote, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R of Ky., has said will come on April 7.
This columnist can see at least three more votes to stop a filibuster, and allow an up or down vote. A Senator from these three states: Maine, Montana, and Missouri. That would make 6, still shy 2 Senators.
Nuclear option
If necessary, McConnell has said he will go for the “nuclear option,” changing the procedural rules for Senate voting, by changing the requirement from 60 to just one more than half, for confirmations of U.S. Supreme Court nominees.
Earlier, in 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D of Nv., had made that change for the confirmation of federal judges.
What’s at stake?
This columnist has seen a lot of changes in his life time. Curiously enough, most of those changes have been made by the courts. Important decisions are no longer made by the Congress. Think of school prayer, the bathrooms, the death sentence, obscenity on television, agency interpretations of the law, and on and on.
We need an originalist, a constitutionalist, to sit on that high bench, the U.S. Supreme Court. And that justice has been nominated by President Donald Trump. Stay tuned!