In the Mainstream with Bill Frist

Bill Frist eloquently started the Senate debate on using filibusters to deny judicial nominees an up or down vote.

(Excerpt)

Today Janice Rogers Brown is a justice on the California Supreme Court.

And she was retained as a justice by the people of California with 76% of the vote.

On July 25, 2003, President Bush nominated Justice Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

To this day, nearly two years later, even though a majority of senators support her, she has been denied an up-or-down on this floor.

That's wrong. That's unfair. Janice Rogers Brown deserves a vote.

Janice Rogers Brown can get 76% of the vote in California, and Priscilla Owen can get 84% of the vote in Texas, but neither can get a vote to be confirmed in the Senate.

Why? The minority says they're out of the mainstream.

Mr. President, are 76% of Californians and 84% of Texans out of the mainstream?

Denying Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen a vote is what's out of the mainstream.

Justice Brown and Justice Owen deserve better.

They deserve to be treated fairly.

They deserve the courtesy of a vote.

The consequences of this debate are not lost on any member of this body.

Soon we — 100 United States Senators — will decide the question at hand.

Should we allow a minority of senators to deny votes on judicial nominees that have the support of a majority of senators?

Or should we restore the 214-year practice of voting up-or-down on all judicial nominees that come to this floor?

I have to believe the Senate will make the right choice.

We will choose the Constitution over obstruction.

We will choose principle over politics.

We will choose votes over vacillation.

And when we do, the Senate will be the better for it.

The Senate will be, as Daniel Webster once described it: "a body to which the country looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing counsels."

To realize this vision, we don't need to look as far back as the Age of Webster, Clay and Calhoun.

All we must do is look at the recent past and take inspiration from the Era of Baker, Byrd and Dole.

For 70 percent of the 20th century, the same party controlled the White House and the Senate.

Yet no minority denied a judicial nominee with majority support an up-or-down vote on this floor.

Howard Baker's Republican minority didn't deny Democrat Jimmy Carter's nominees.

Robert Byrd's Democratic minority didn't deny Republican Ronald Reagan's nominees.

Bob Dole's Republican minority didn't deny Democrat Bill Clinton's nominees.

These minorities showed restraint.

They respected the appointments process.

They practiced the fine, but fragile art of political civility.

Sure they disagreed with the majority at times.

But they nonetheless allowed up-or-down votes to occur.

This Senate must do what's right.

We must do what's fair.

We must do the job we were elected to do and took an oath to do.

We must give judicial nominees the up-or-down votes they deserve.

So let us debate.

Let senators be heard.

Let the Senate decide.

Let this body rise on principle and do its duty and vote.