Democratic bloggers just finished a conference call with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) on the nuclear option. The Dems are being very careful. They will not leave the Senate floor unattended even to go to the bathroom in case someone tries to start a vote on Patricia Owen. We learned this because Sen. Schumer had to leave the call for a few minutes while he took the place of a Senator who did need a restroom break.

Sen. Schumer was emphatic in his remarks to us. He said the hard right, both economic and religious, has decided that the only way to push their agenda through is to control the courts. If they win and gain control of the courts, both economically and socially, they will roll back America to the 1930's or the 1890's.

He said that the hard right made a deal with George Bush during the election. It would support him and "not hound him", but he had to cede control of his judicial nominations to the Federalist Society.

The Senate hearings are live now on C-Span2. Sen. Patrick Leahy is speaking right now. You can watch on the Internet here. Feel free to use the comments to live-blog the action along with your comments.

Sen. Russ Feingold made this statement on the Senate Floor yesterday. Sen. Harry Reid's speech is reproduced here.

Think Progress reports that Republican Senator Bill Frist imploded on the Senate Floor today when Sen. Schumer asked him a simple question about a filibuster he participated in five years ago. TP says Frist's tortured response undermines his entire argument for the nuclear option.

I'll be participating in a small conference call with Sen. Chuck Schumer at 12:10 ET. If you have any suggestions for questions to ask him, you can leave them in the comments.

REID FLOOR SPEECH ON USE OF FILIBUSTER

Mr. President, yesterday morning I spoke here about a statement the Majority Leader issued calling the filibuster a “procedural gimmick.”

The Websters dictionary defines “gimmick” as - - “an ingenious new scheme or angle.” No Mr. President, the filibuster is not a scheme. And it is not new. The filibuster is far from a “procedural gimmick.” It is part of the fabric of this institution. It was well known in colonial legislatures, and it is an integral part of our country’s 217 years of history.

Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid said talks have broken down with Republicans over the nuclear option.

Reid said Bill Frist made it clear it was all or nothing with the Republcians. I hope Sen. Reid told Frist "No to Priscilla Owen. No to Janice Rogers Brown."

The Democrats have the public's support. Check this out. The Hip Hop Caucus will be holding a rally in the Captitol to save the filibuster.

You know the filibuster fight has reached the public consciousness when the Hip Hop Caucus gets involved. The group, dedicated to "a comprehensive agenda for the Hip-Hop community," will hold a "Save the Filibuster" event this morning in the Capitol -- one small piece of a mass mobilization by both sides in the Senate's squabble over President Bush's judicial nominees.

ABC reports on the current numbers for each side in the filibuster war, and says that 7 Republican Senators are key, because they have not publicly said which way they will vote. They are:

The senators are Susan Collins of Maine, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John Warner of Virginia, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Sununu of New Hampshire.

The Republicans need 51 votes to make the change. All 44 Democrats are opposed. So are three Republicans, and Jim Jeffords, an Independent, for a total of 48. Frist has 45 of the 55 Republicans. He needs five of the seven, plus Dick Cheney's tie breaking vote, while the Democrats need three of the seven.

The other night, Washington Times Reporter Charles Hurt thought he could smear Sen. Minority leader Harry Reid. He failed.

Desperate to catch another vote to kill the filibuster, hoping that if Reid is discredited, another Senator or two might join their pro-nuclear option ranks, the Administration is using the Justice Department to try again.

The problem, as Bob Brigham writes, is this:

• For years, reporters have been writing about this file (common knowledge in the public domain).

• This is a politically motivated "leak" by a Justice Department "anonymous source" -- total partisan politics.

• No where does the letter mention Reid, but the "leak" brings Reid into the story, making it clear that the intention is a political smear.

Matt Singer points out once again, this is old news and previously referred to publicly more than a year ago not only by Reporter Charles Hurt, but by Senator Carl Levin and others:

The Washington Post reports Frist said Friday he will launch the nuclear option next week by forcing a vote on either Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown.

Here are the stages:

first, a "test vote" to demonstrate there is majority support for the nominee but not the 60 needed to break a filibuster; second, a vote on a non-debatable motion to table the objections Democrats would raise to a ruling by the presiding officer -- Vice President Cheney -- that a simple majority vote is sufficient for confirmation;
and, if the first two hurdles are cleared, a vote on the nominee herself.

It appears talks are ongoing between Sens. Harry Reid and Bill Frist. In fact, Reid will be having dinner at Frist's house Sunday night. But I'm not liking what I'm reading about possible settlements:

by TChris

Abstinence-only education doesn't stop kids from having sex, it just stops them from learning how to avoid pregnancy. Abstinence-only is emphasized in Texas, a fact that explains the teen pregnancy rate -- one of the highest in the nation -- in an area of south Texas known as the Valley. Of every 1,000 girls, 37 are pregnant before they turn 17.

The need for more informative education became apparent to four students at Mission High School after six of their classmates became pregant. They decided to do something about it: they made a movie.

Two years later, their 16-minute educational film promoting condom use, named "Toothpaste" after a teen code word for condoms, has been ordered by schools around the country. It also will be shown at film festivals and on the Showtime cable channel, according to the organization that produced the film.

If these kids don't become professional filmmakers, let's hope they run for office. It would be nice to vote for someone who wants to solve problems rather than compound them.

Washington Times Reporter Charles Hurt charges today that Sen. Harry Reid improperly disclosed that Henry Saad, a Bush nominee for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, had negative information in his confidential FBI report.

But this was not confidential, it was in the public domain. In fact, it was broadcast over the Internet at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Saad's nomination in June, 2004. Via Roll Call, 6/7/04 (Available on Lexis.com):

Is This Thing On?
The Senate Judiciary Committee is embarrassed -again.

Fingers are still being pointed over who is responsible for leaving the live Web audio feed on during Thursday's confidential, closed-door session to consider controversial judicial nominee Henry Saad of Michigan.

Senators were deep into their private meeting, raising and answering questions about the contents of Saad's FBI background check when the alarming call came that the entire private session was being streamed live on C-SPAN's audio Web site.

by TChris

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee discussion of John Bolton today, Sen. George Voinovich said this:

"What message are we sending to the world community when in the same breath we have sought to appoint an ambassador to the United Nations who himself has been accused of being arrogant, of not listening to his friends, of acting unilaterally, of bullying those who do not have the ability to properly defend themselves?"

What message indeed? But then he explained why he would nonethless vote to send Bolton's nomination on to the full Senate:

"That being said, Mr. Chairman, I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues."

Isn't the exercise of his judgment and perspective exactly what those who voted him into office expect?

Say hello to The DeLay Rankings. It's a group that is tracking connections between DeLay and other Congresspersons.

Campaign finance watchdog group Public Campaign Action Fund launched The Delay Rankings at a new Web site today that allows constituents to see how close their representative is to the scandal-plagued House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). Topping the list are Reps. Tom Feeney of Florida, Bob Beauprez of Colorado, Jim Ryun of Kansas, Dave Weldon of Florida, and Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania.

The rankings are based on six categories, including how much money members have received from DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (ARMPAC), how much they have given to DeLay's legal defense fund, and how frequently they have voted with DeLay.

With the Nuclear Option almost upon us, and only 18 months to go to the 2006 elections, bloggers need to mobilize regionally and locally. Bob Brigham writes over at Daily Kos and MyDD that BlogPAC is rushing out its regional infrastructure, and it's ready to go now.

This is a general call for Democratic bloggers to sign up and unite to wage politics online....As many of you know, over the last 10 months, BlogPAC has begun to organize nationally. Free conference calls, IM, Skype, and email have allowed us message consistency, organized timing, and focus. These tools have institutionalized a support system.

To be prepared for the filibuster battle and to begin our 18 month march through the election, we need to organize state-by-state, district-by-district...ASAP.