by TChris

President Bush "courted his Christian base" in a speech at Michigan's Calvin College, only to find that not all Christians are of like mind. About a third of the Christian college's 300 faculty members signed a letter criticizing the values underlying the administration's policies.

"As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort," it said. The letter criticized economic policies that it said favored the wealthy over the poor, and faulted Bush for mixing religion and politics and exhibiting an "intolerance" for others' views. It cited "conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."

Some of the graduating students wore buttons bearing the phrase "God is not a Democrat or a Republican."

Sen. Bill Frist trotted out Bishop Harry Jackson today, a black minister who supports Janice Rogers Brown. His support appears based on her opposition to gay marriage and support for heterosexual, conservative family values.

Bishop Harry Jackson said judges like Brown are needed to stop courts from overruling the people with decisions like those requiring the legalization of same-sex marriage. Jackson said black and white churches are uniting to restore "America's moral compass."

Who is he? He's a member of a group called "The High Impact Leadership Coalition," which, according to at least this writer, practices bigotry.

But don't take her word for it. Check out the group's inaugural press release:

Bump and Update: As anticipated, Frist kicked off the nuclear option today by moving to end debate on Priscilla Owen's nomination - called a motion or petition for cloture. The clock is ticking.

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Original Post 6:30 am

The next stage of the Nuclear Option begins this morning when Sen. Bill Frist will move to invoke cloture on the Democrats' speeches about judicial nominee Priscilla Owen.

Shortly after the Senate convenes this morning, Frist, R-Tenn., will file a cloture petition, which requires the approval of 60 of 100 senators, to end debate on Owen's nomination. Last session, Democrats blocked Owen and nine other appellate court nominees. He has renominated seven of them this year. Under Senate rules that petition must "ripen" for two days while the Senate is in session -- today and Monday -- before a vote.

If no Democrats jump ship, the petition will fail because it needs 60 votes and there are only 55 Republicans. In that event, here are the next steps [direct quote].

Sen Rick Santorum has issued a statement calling the remarks he made yesterday, in which he compared Democrats to Hitler, a mistake:

What he said:

"The audacity of some members to stand up and say 'How dare you break this rule' -- it's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying 'I'm in Paris, how dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the Senate than it was the rule of the Senate before not to filibuster. It was an understanding and agreement, and it has been abused."

What he says now:

Santorum issued his own clarification yesterday evening, stating that the reference to Hitler was "meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic colleagues."

"My point was that it is preposterous for someone to trample a well-established principle, and then accuse his opponents of acting unlawfully when they try to reestablish that principle," Santorum said. "Nevertheless, it was a mistake and I meant no offense."

I can't wait to see the campaign commercials playing and replaying those comments when he runs for re-election. In the meantime, is his admission of a "mistake" enough? Go read Steve Gilliard [link via Daily Kos.]

The Washington Post has a good explanation of the mechanics of the nuclear option compromise being engineered by 12 Senators who are hoping to thwart both Sen. Frist and Sen. Reid. I'm wondering why we should give all the power to these 12?

Behind closed doors, they have carved up the future of a number of Bush's judicial nominees, deciding among themselves who should be confirmed and who should not. The two sides have traded pieces of paper and argued over words and phrases. They have consulted the Constitution itself and yesterday even asked for a dictionary as the hair-splitting over language continued.

Simple arithmetic gives the group potentially great power. If six Republicans and six Democrats reach agreement and stick to it, they can shut down any filibuster lodged by Democrats against a judicial nominee and block any effort by Frist to change the rules. They also can determine the fate of the nominees already on the Senate docket and can provide the balance of power in any fights over Supreme Court vacancies.

Why are these 12 going to be the arbiters of the judicial nominees? It seems like the exercise of power in this country continually gets whittled down to fewer and fewer people, all of whom have special interests. It seems very undemocratic. In fact, it seems like an an oligarchy.

Ok, let's wait and see how long it takes for the right to condemn Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)for his remarks comparing Democrats to Hitler today. My guess: forget the stop watch, you'll need a calendar.

Via Raw Story and Armando at Daily Kos - and of course, Crooks and Liars has the video:

Said Santorum: "What the Democrats are doing is "the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster."

This was Santorum's view of Hitler comparisons three months ago:

"Senator Byrd's inappropriate remarks comparing his Republican colleagues with Nazis are inexcusable," Santorum said in a statement yesterday. "These comments lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate. He should retract his statement and ask for pardon."

Via Atrios and then Blogenlust, who adds some must-read right-wing condemnations of the left's use of Hitler comparisons, including this one from Time Magazine's blog of the year:

Bump and Update: It sounds like the Senate is getting ready to sell us down the river. They report being close on a compromise. From the quote below, it sounds like it's all done but defining the "extreme circumstances" that would allow a Democrat to filibuster a Supreme Court or other judicial nominee. In other words, if that's all they are "struggling with," they've already caved in on letting almost of all of Bush's judges in, including Owen and Rogers Brown.

"I don't know whether we're 10 percent there or 70 percent there. It's still very fluid," said Sen. Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat. "There are language issues and conceptual issues that people are still struggling with."

If it goes down this way, it's a huge loss for the Democrats. They will have put a bunch of extremists on the federal bench, and only preserved the right to filibuster in "extreme circumstances" and more importantly, only through the 109th Congress. All of the Supreme Court justices except perhaps Rehnquist can hold out until 2007 - and then the Republicans will make the same move to end the filibuster they are making now and we'll be back at ground zero.

I'm sorry to see Colorado Ken Salazar be one of the leaders of the effort.

Check out Move-On's latest ad (top left) with Bill Frist as the hooded villain - it's wonderful:

One Senator, seduced by a dark vision of absolute power, seeks to destroy this fabled order, replacing fair judges with far right clones.

Stop Senator Frist. Save our Courts. Save the Republic. Move-On rocks.

Update: Check out Media Matters Top Ten Filibuster Falsehoods.

Here are some portions of Sen. Harry Reid's floor statement today on the proper role of the Senate in Advice and Consent. Bottom Line: Bush and Frist want the Senate to Consent and ignore duty to advise. It's not going to happen. The Senate is not a rubber stamp for the President or the radical right.

....The filibuster is not a gimmick. It has been part of our nation’s history for two centuries. It is one of the vital checks and balances established by our Founding Fathers. It is not a gimmick.

Also, Republicans have not been accurate in describing the use of the filibuster. They say the defeat of a handful of President Bush’s judicial nominees is unprecedented. In fact, hundreds of judicial nominees in American history have been rejected by the Senate, many by filibuster. Most notably, the nomination of Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice of the United States was successfully filibustered in 1968. And during the Clinton Administration, over 60 judicial nominees were bottled up in the Judiciary Committee and never received floor votes.

While the New York Times is gearing up to charge online readers for its op-ed pages, the Wall Street Journal earns our appreciation by taking the opposite tack and providing free access to articles that might have blogger appeal. Today's example: A new poll that shows Americans have a sharply diminished view of Congress' performance:

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that disapproval of Congress's performance is higher than it has been since 1994, the year voters swept Democrats out of power on Capitol Hill. Americans have grown gloomier about the nation's direction, the economy and Iraq, and by 65%-17% they say Congress doesn't share their priorities.

Even the poll results can be viewed for free here.(pdf).

Los Angeles has a new mayor-elect, Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa beat current mayor James Hahn. In 2001, it was the other way around.

By overwhelming margins, Villaraigosa captured Democrats, liberals and younger voters, according to a Los Angeles Times exit poll. He also won a majority of San Fernando Valley residents, union members and Jewish voters. His support among blacks more than doubled from what he won in his 2001 mayoral contest against Hahn -- though it fell just shy of half.

But it was Villaraigosa's huge support among Latinos that turned his victory into a landslide, ushering Hahn out of office after a lone term. The city councilman sparked a surge in Latino turnout and won 84 percent of the Latino vote.

It was James Hahn who hired Bill Bratton to run the LAPD. Many thought if Villaraigosa won, Bratton would return to New York and run for Mayor. But today, after a one hour meeting between Bratton and Villaraigosa, Bratton announced he is staying on as Chief.

British Parliament member George Galloway has had enough and he's not going to take it anymore. This week, he blasted a Senate sub-committee for alleging he improperly profited in the Iraqi-food-for-oil scandal.

Stockphrase at Daily Kos has posted the text of his remarks (full version here):

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

As always, Crooks and Liars has the video.