Senate:
The Senate passed a prescription drug bill that was carved out in a deal between the White House and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass.).
1) Kennedy’s heavy hand in pushing the bill through has angered some Republicans and Democrats. Kennedy threatened to filibuster the bill if the Senate added a means-testing provision (making benefits proportional to economic need). There were enough votes to pass the amendment, but Republican leaders-under threat of a Kennedy filibuster-killed the means testing.
2) A handful of conservative Republicans opposed the bill, although it had the White House’s blessing. Three of those opponents were well-regarded freshmen-senators John Sununu (R.-N.H.), Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R.-Tex.)-who got support from the White House in their elections last year.
3) One specific worry about Sen. Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) as majority leader has been confirmed by his performance on this bill: the suspicion that he would take orders too much from the White House. Until the floor debate began, the GOP player in negotiations on the Senate bill was understood to be the White House, rather than an independent Senate GOP. This was true despite the fact that Frist-a surgeon-professes a deep personal concern for this legislation.
4) The White House officially supports the Senate bill, although, according to sources, White House policy staff thinks it is a bad idea. However, with the political staff behind the Kennedy-supported bill, the policy objections get shelved.
Supreme Court:
Tension runs high as the possibility of a vacancy looms, while reaction is strong to the recent rulings.
1) The mixed ruling on affirmative action complies almost perfectly with the amicus brief the White House filed on the case. The ruling finds strict quotas to violate the Constitution, but rules that schools may use race as a factor in admission. This was the official White House stand as determined by Karl Rove and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. The 6-3 ruling in favor of less-rigid affirmative action rejects the more conservative line against all race discrimination that Solicitor General Theodore Olson had unofficially pushed.
2) The Court’s striking down sodomy laws infuriated social conservatives and upset all conservatives sensitive to judicial activism. Social conservatives are increasingly upset that Republican leaders have not publicly condemned or lamented the decision. The relative quiet from GOP corners on this bill adds to Christian-right feelings of abandonment on issues of homosexuality.
3) The question on both the left and the right is whether gay marriage will soon be considered a constitutional right at some point. Democrats want to avoid allowing the debate to shift to gay marriage, because the right will win that topic with the public.
4) Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissents pleased conservatives, but worried them about the future of the court. They also appeared largely dedicated to attacking the judicial competence of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, also a Reagan appointee.
5) The White House, meanwhile, is floating a trial balloon of responding to a Chief Justice William Rehnquist retirement by promoting O’Connor to the chief spot and replacing her with Gonzales. The early conservative reaction to this idea is furious, including threats of abandoning Bush.
6) There is already some deflation of conservative enthusiasm for Republicans. In the 6-3 pro-affirmative action ruling, a majority of the seven Republican-appointed judges came down on the liberal side of this ruling.
Confirmations:
The Senate GOP leadership has taken the first steps towards clearing the backlog on Bush’s nominations to the federal courts.
1) The Senate Rules Committee passed a resolution by voice vote that would change the way cloture motions work, allowing the majority, by filing successive cloture motions, to overcome filibusters, eventually with only 51 votes. Democrats did not show for the committee hearing.
2) Passing this rule change through the full Senate would take 67 votes, and so is nearly impossible.
3) GOP leadership has indicated they will add more judges to the filibuster queue in July. Once-defeated judge Charles Pickering from Mississippi will likely get another hearing this month.
4) Frist, in a "Dear Colleague" letter, called on Democrats to allow an up-or-down vote before the end of the summer in the case of a Supreme Court vacancy this summer. The letter fueled speculation as to whether the White House already has word of an immanent retirement.
5) Republicans have still not ruled out a "nuclear" option of simply ruling from the chair that a filibuster is out of order on a judicial nominee, but Democrats have preemptively promised to shut down the Senate if the GOP took such a course of action.
