Senator Warner has gotten squishy. He has not publicly committed to restoring the constitutional responsibility of senators to vote on judicial nominees by a simple majority. He seems to be waffling and may possibly support the continued abuse of filibusters to block judicial nominees.
Why would he do this? The standard argument for supporting filibusters for blocking judicial nominees seems to be "tradition". The Senate has traditions which must be honored. Rules should never be changed.
Let's look at tradition. Here are the number of judicial nominees that have been blocked by filibuster -- broken down by century.
1700's - # of judicial nominees filibustered on the floor - 0
1800's - # of judicial nominees filibustered on the floor - 0
1900's - # of judicial nominees filibustered on the floor - 1
2000's - # of judicial nominees filibustered on the floor - 10 on 20 different occasions.
Ok. Tradition has spoken. Now change the rules.
Stop the nonsense. End the filibusters on judicial nominees. Vote on judges.
I have already emailed the honorable Mr. Warner. Today I will call his office in Roanoke. I may even go visit his district office here in Roanoke to express my opinion. Let me know if you want to come along.
Call ALL of his offices:
Midlothian
Norfolk
Abingdon
Roanoke
Washington, D.C.
For a good primer on how to debate this issue, check out Radio Blogger's transcript of Hugh Hewitt (for the constitutional option) debating against Nancy Zirkin (the sacrificial lamb).