A Real "Nuclear" Option

Silence implies consent.

If you have been paying attention for a long time, Faithful Reader, you'll have known from reading The Blog from the Core that the Senate has been in a stalemate over the filibustering of judicial nominations by the minority for more than two years. In fact, the employment of the "nuclear" option was a hot topic two years ago this month. And what do you think about that "nuclear" business? A mere simple majority vote to change a rule that allows a small minority to dictate the actions of the group — is nuclear? What kind of insular, insulated, peculiar world do you have to live in to think like that?

Anyway, here's my proposal for a real "nuclear" option. I base my thinking on the classic truism of Anglo-American thinking: silence implies consent.

Let's have a look at how the Senate's role in the appointment of judges is prescribed in the federal constitution; it is actually described where the president's power to appoint them is delineated:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

Here's my suggestion for a real "nuclear" option: take back the authority to where it belongs, in the president. Let's have a presidential appointment come to the Senate in a form something like this:

To the Honorable the Senate of the United States:

Pursuant to my authority under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, I herewith appoint So-and-So to the office of Such-and-Such. Unless he shall have been rejected by the Senate within 60 days, it shall be assumed that the Senate consents to this appointment, whereupon So-and-So shall be sworn in as Such-as-Such.

How about that?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 05/20/05 07:43:59 AM
Categorized as Political.