Is it time to psychoanalyze Democrats' recent toughness against Bush nominees - as suggested by ABCNote - or are Dems just exposing the Nazi in "GOP"? Krugman's March 29, 2005, "What's Going On? Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst is a must read on how GOP is trying to circumvent courts and laws and rules in order to get extreme agenda folks happy - as in the media burying Gov Jeb Bush's aborted plan to send state law enforcement agents to seize Schiavo from hospice - that ended when local police said they at least would obey the court order. If we do not fight domestic GOP extremists and their Media whores, liberal politicians in United States could one day fear assassination
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/politics/08cong.htmlDemocrats Step Up Fight Against Nominees
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and MICHAEL JANOFSKY
ASHINGTON, April 7 - When Senator Bill Nelson of Florida stepped before the microphones Thursday to announce that he would use "every parliamentary procedure that is available to me" to block the nomination of Stephen L. Johnson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, he became the latest Democrat this week to stand in the way of President Bush's nominees.<snip>
Under Senate rules, a hold is similar to a filibuster, in that it can be broken only with 60 votes. Republicans and Democrats alike use the hold, typically to draw attention to a particular issue. Usually, the hold is honored or the issue is resolved through negotiations.<snip>
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, warned that if the Democrats continued to hold up White House nominees, Mr. Bush might simply evade the confirmation process by putting his nominees in place while Congress was in recess, as he did with two judges during the last Congress.
"If the Democrats want to change the rule to require 60 votes," Mr. Norquist said, "the Republicans will change the rule to require no votes."