Moving the Primary

I am in favor of moving all presidential primaries to later in the year, like say April through June. I am not sure what good it would do to move Ohio's primary alone, without the rest of the country following suit. Iowa and New Hampshire are quaint traditions, but they harm the process. A shorter window would open up the primary to more candidates and give a chance for real debate inside the party on the issues. The fear of have variable opinions inside the parties, really hurt politics and governance. I am not talking abortion here. I am talking about the real issues, like trade, foreign policy, Social Security, and health care. If the parties hashed it out on the floor of the conventions over issues, then people on the street might actually pay attention. I hate to use TV as an example, but the West Wing's season finale covered a brokered convention that looked like a mess, but Conventional Wisdom was wrong, people watched the floor fights. The paid attention in part for the excitement, but politics is exciting. It was sport, but it was a battle of ideas, not an insignificant game. Let’s for once learn from past (and TV) and try and make the primary race and conventions matter, not just a coronation.

No VH-1 Show of Jeffre

Mayoral candidate Justin Jeffre attempt to land a TV show about his run for mayor has fail with cable network VH-1. He is not giving up his bid for office. His value to the race now has diminished. He had and has no real chance of winning. His ability to paint Cincinnati as a great place was the value he could have illustrated by filming him on the campaign trail. He still could find another cannel to cover it and he still will get some national press, but not enough and not crafted to show him enjoying life in Cincinnati.

Tony Perkins

Wow, when you court racists specifically, doesn't that make you one? This guy calls himself a 'Christian,' but buys David Duke's mailing list? Amazing.

No Lunken Air Show This Year?

Reports indicate that the Lunken Airport Benefits Association has cancelled its filing with the Ohio Secretary of State, which indicates the organization has dissolved itself. It is reorganizing? I for one have never been to the event directly, but walking by the event on the bike path and seeing the planes flying overhead every year, it looked like a great event for the community. It will be a blow to the Airport’s image. If they bring back the car racing event again, that might liven things up a bit.

Al, Al, Al

Someone needs a better producer or made hire a research assistant.

History Lesson on Filibuster and Judicial Nominations

Here is a great lesson in history on what occurred before the current battle on Judicial Nominations:

"Prior to 1996, when the Senate majority and the president were from opposing parties, senators usually deferred to the president with respect to lower-court judicial nominations. With the notable exceptions of the 1968 Fortas nomination and a failed Republican filibuster of H. Lee Sarokin in 1994, neither party filibustered the other's judicial nominations, and virtually all nominees received a hearing unless they were sent up after the presidential nominating conventions.

All this changed in 1996. Rather than openly challenge President Clinton's nominees on the floor, Republicans decided to deny them Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Between 1996 and 2000, 20 of Bill Clinton's appeals-court nominees were denied hearings, including Elena Kagan, now dean of the Harvard Law School, and many other women and minorities. In 1999, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch refused to hold hearings for almost six months on any of 16 circuit-court and 31 district-court nominations Clinton had sent up. Three appeals-court nominees who did manage to obtain a hearing in Clinton's second term were denied a committee vote, including Allen R. Snyder, a distinguished Washington lawyer, Clinton White House aide, and former Rehnquist law clerk, who drew lavish praise at his hearing -- but never got a committee vote. Some 45 district-court nominees were also denied hearings, and two more were afforded hearings but not a committee vote.

Even votes that did occur were often delayed for months and even years. In late 1999, New Hampshire Republican Bob Smith blocked a vote on 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Richard Paez for months by putting an anonymous hold on the nomination. When Majority Leader Trent Lott could no longer preserve the hold, Smith and 13 other Republicans tried to mount a filibuster against the vote, but cloture was voted and Paez easily confirmed. It had been over four years since his nomination.

When his tactics on the Paez and Marsha Berzon nominations (Berzon was filibustered along with Paez, more than two years after her nomination) were challenged, Smith responded with an impassioned floor speech in defense of the judicial filibuster: 'Don't pontificate on the floor of the Senate and tell me that somehow I am violating the Constitution of the United States of America by blocking a judge or filibustering a judge that I don't think deserves to be on the circuit court ... . That is my responsibility. That is my advice and consent role, and I intend to exercise it.' "

Now, if you still think Senator Frist is not full of shit, then you might just want to rethink the whole "leaving the mental institution thing."

Six Democrats?

From none to Six . That will be crowed.