ROGER SIMON COLUMN
MARCH 21, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - - Too much is going on. We are paralyzed by our choices.
Along with all the classes, seminars and lectures that take place daily at Harvard, where I am hiding out for a semester, there are speeches, symposia (yes, they talk like that up here), and workshops.
The choices are staggering. Here are some actual events that have taken place in the last few days. I am not making these up:
"The Dudleian Lecture: Memory, Salvation and Perdition. Importance and Ambiguity of Memory."
"Paradise Lost? A Critical Analysis of Homicides in Jamaica."
"The Death of Oedipus and What Happened Next."
"Workshop on Conservative and Revisionist Historiography." ( I might have gone to this if I knew what historiography was.)
"Principles of Politeness: The Reputation and Reception of Lord Chesterfield and Letters to His Son."
"State Religion and Women's Religion in Early Babylonia: The Case of Queen Shulgi-Simti." (I might have gone to this one, too, but I am so bored with Queen Shulgi-Simti. It seems like every time you turn around there is another primetime TV special on Queen Shulgi-Simti.)
"Hammer of Gold: Financial Policy and the Coming of Stalinist Industrialization."
"Born to Run? Walking and Running in Human Evolution."
"The Molecular Basis of Transduction in Zebrafish Hair Cells."
See what I mean? This is a tiny sample of what is available and it is way too much to choose between. So how do we decide what to attend?
Answer: Free food.
Yes, that is correct. Some rules apply even at Harvard: If you feed us, we will come.
Which is how I found myself at a talk by Nan Aron, president of the Alliance For Justice, "the country's premier voice for a fair and independent judiciary and a major player in the judicial nominations process," according to the press release.
(The talk was also about 20 feet from my office, another criterion I use, especially if it is snowing.)
Aron is heavily involved in educating people about the current fight over Senate rules and judicial nominations. In today's Senate it takes 60 votes, not a simple majority of 51, to approve a judicial nominee. That is because it takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster.
Angered by the Democratic blockage of some of President Bush's appointments to the bench, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has threatened to change the rules and make filibustering impossible on judicial nominees. This is being called the "nuclear option." All Frist needs is 51 votes to do this and the Republicans have 55 votes in the Senate.
But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has threatened to paralyze the Senate if Frist goes ahead with the nuclear option.
"Keep in mind that federal judges are there for life," Aron said. "They are a president's legacy. William Rehnquist (Chief Justice of the United States) has served under seven presidents. Federal judges used to serve an average of 15 years. Now it is up to 24 years. That is a long time considering a president serves only four or eight years.
"A few years ago, if somebody had told me the Senate would filibuster court of appeals judges, I would not have believed it. But it is judgeships around which Democrats have decided to define themselves."
Aron named some judicial nominees she was opposed to. "You have probably never heard of them, but they would turn back the clock on environmental protection, workers' rights, and the right to choose," Aron said. "This president seeks to do harm to the rights we have come to take for granted through his judicial appointments. The Democrats have only the filibuster as a way to say no."
Aron also said that while the Republicans are portraying the Democrats as obstructionists, Democrats have blocked only 10 out of 214 of Bush's judicial nominees. "At the end of Clinton's second term, 60 of his judicial nominees had failed to have a hearing or had been blocked," she said.
Aron discussed the "nuclear option" and said it was really a way for Bush to get his Supreme Court nominees approved easily, should there be an opening. "We do expect Rehnquist to retire this June and my hunch is that Bush is trying to get other justices to retire as well, including Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy. We will be facing the most important fight of all of our lives."
There are two sides to this issue, of course, but the person Aron was supposed to debate got sick and couldn't show up. So we will just have to wait and hope that when he does come to Harvard, they will offer a free dinner to hear him.
And, by the way, I hope you have been paying attention. Because all this will be on the final.