Good morning . . .
An historic showdown began in the US Senate this morning. The debate pits Republicans who favor the Constitution and the obstructionist politics of the Democrats.
The debate is on whether there should be a rules change in the Senate to ban filibusters on presidential nominees. The Republicans argue that the Constitution says the Senate will "advise and consent" to the nominees of the president not will be "selected by the minority for a vote." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) argues the nominees deserve and "up or down" vote on the floor of the Senate and that a simple majority is all that is required under the Constitution. It takes 60 votes to end a filibuster and Democrats say that is how many votes will be necessary to confirm President Bush's judicial nominees.
The rule change for filibusters only applies to judicial nominees. The minority party will continue to have the ability to filibuster legislation and other presidential nominees.
Attempts to compromise failed because the Democrats would not allow an "up or down" vote for all the nominees. Reid said that the Democrats would not filibuster two or three nominees if the president would withdraw the names of the more "controversial" judges. Both Sen. Frist and the White House declined to make such a compromise. The Democrats call the nominees "controversial" because they are conservative judges instead of the liberal activist judges Democrats prefer.
Listening to early arguments, it becomes obvious that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) does not understand the nomination process. He continues to insist that judicial nominees have received a vote. They have not. The only vote taken was to end debate on the nomination not whether to confirm the nominee.
As the debate continues, the big question will be how many Republicans will defect to the Democrat side? You can be certain that the White House will be looking very carefully at any defector and his or her future role in helping the president.
Continuing coverage can be found on C-SPAN.
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Could Dan Rather finally be out of a job? Probably not.
CBS announced the cancellation of '60 Minutes Wednesday' the show that aired the controversial segment in which Rather and producer Mary Mapes attempted to change the course of a Presidential election. The now infamous segment used forged documents to criticize President Bush's Texas Air National Guard Service.
The failure on the part of Rather and Mapes to properly authenticate the documents and then cover up and stonewall any attempt to show the documents as forgeries led to an investigation that cost Rather the anchor chair and the jobs of Mapes and four other CBS News executives. Only CBS News President Andrew Heyward and CBS President Leslie Moonves escaped the investigation. Both should have been included in the resignations that followed the investigation.
During the announcement, Moonves insisted several times that the cancellation of the show was related to ratings not "content." It is impossible for any clear thinking follower of the ,media to believe that "content" and the addition of Dan Rather to the program did not enter into the decision. Me. Moonves you nose is getting longer.
The cancellation will, more than likely, result in layoffs of CBS News staffers, but Dan Rather will escape to '60 Minutes Sunday' to continue his tarnished career.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - TV
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The Federal Communications Commission has started a process that could result in new ownership rules for cable companies. Tuesday the FCC announced it would review limits that would ensure there is adequate competition and programming diversity.
The move by the FCC comes four years after an federal judge ruled the agency had not adequately justified the ownership caps it established in 1993.
The earlier caps said that no one company could own more than 30 percent of US cable subscribers and no more than 40 percent of the programming shown on their systems.
When the rules were established in 1993 no company was close to the caps, but with the mergers of several large companies Comcast is coming close to the caps.
The commission's two Democrat members, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein hope the cable companies are willing to work with the commission. "We hope that cable operators and other parties do not argue that there should be no numerical limits, but instead provide appropriate and necessary information to help us implement" new rules, they said.
Under FCC rules a 30-day period for public comment will begin after the FCC's rule-making notice is published in the Federal Register.
FCC to Take Another Look at Cable Rules - Yahoo! News
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More later.
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