GOP rates who will defect on nuclear option

[quaoar]

This is from the Weekly Standard:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/541ogpls.asp


John McCain (Arizona): McCain is one of only
two GOP senators who have publicly said they will buck their party's anti-filibuster maneuver. "I will vote against the nuclear option," he told MSNBC host Chris Matthews earlier this month.

Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island): Chafee is the other sure-fire Republican defector. "He feels that it would be a mistake to change the Senate rules," explains spokesman Stephen Hourahan. At least one conservative lobbyist says Chafee might still be "gettable" for Frist. But Hourahan affirms his boss's staunch opposition.

Olympia Snowe (Maine): Most GOP sources expect Snowe to eventually vote against the anti-filibuster plan. For now, she remains publicly undecided but leaning heavily toward opposition. "I don't think it's going to be any surprise about what I intend to do on this vote," she told the New York Times last week. Says a Snowe aide: "I think it's clear where she is."

Susan Collins (Maine): Collins is more of a wild card than Snowe, but also skeptical of Frist's plan. In her chief statement on the judicial crisis, Collins said Democrats have used the filibuster "unfairly" against many of President Bush's circuit court nominees. At the same time, she felt the so-called nuclear option would be a "mistake" and urged Frist "not to proceed with a rule change that will further poison the partisan atmosphere in the Senate to the point that we will not be able to conduct business."

John Warner (Virginia): Warner is a reliable conservative on most issues. But he's also been in the Senate since 1979 and knows what it's like to serve in the minority. He routinely cites that experience when relating his hesitance to scrap judicial filibusters. "I just look at this institution as really the last bastion of protecting the rights of the minority," Warner told the New York Times last week, "and we should be very careful before we try and make any changes."

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska): "She is still currently in the 'undecided' column," says a Murkowski spokeswoman. "Her concern is the timing of the constitutional option." That is, Murkowski worries the anti-filibuster method could derail next year's budget resolution, which contains a provision to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (a provision Murkowski supports).

John Sununu (New Hampshire): Sununu's office says he "has not taken a public position" and will not take one until the moment he casts his vote. But GOP sources indicate that Sununu will likely come on board with Frist.

Mike DeWine (Ohio): Like Sununu, DeWine claims to have made up his mind privately but won't divulge his choice. "I don't even know," says a DeWine aide. As with Sununu, Republicans predict DeWine will ultimately back the anti-filibuster maneuver.

Chuck Hagel (Nebraska): Hagel is perhaps the Senate's second most famous GOP maverick, after John McCain. On April 17, he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he had "not made a decision. If I have to make one, I will. But I've said to both sides, don't include me in your count right now." He did, however, emphasize his concern for preserving "minority rights" in the Senate. Chipping away at the filibuster, Hagel said, was both "dangerous" and "irresponsible."

Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania): True to form, Specter has tended to deploy on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand appraisals of the filibuster spat. Thus, in a floor statement last week, he first zinged the Democrats' "unprecedented use of the filibuster," but then said doing away with judicial filibusters would mark "a serious
blow to the rights of the minority." Nevertheless, pro-nuclear Republicans trust Specter will side with them if and when the time comes for a vote.

[radar]

1. Do it for James Stewart!!!

Mr Smith goes to Washington & kicks nuclear option lovin' repub buttocks.

[wryter2000]

2. We need six of them, right

Five gets a tie and Dr. Doom casts the tie-breaking vote.

[ThumperDumper]

3. The problem is...

if they don't have the votes now, they can try again later.

AND if we don't take the Senate back in 2006 when many of these chumps are up for re-election then they WILL do it.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. And knowing these people

they'll keep trying. They'll find some way by blackmail or something to get one of these senators to join the bandwagon. I'm going for McCain.

[BillZBubb]

4. My guess is that right now it is 52-48 against blocking filibuster

Sununu and DeWine are sure yesses. They shouldn't be in this list at all. Murkowki is the only ?, but she'll go party line in the end once any pressure is on her. The Repug leadership has to flip at least two of the others. That's not an impossible task.

[quaoar]

6. I wonder whether there aren't other Republican senators

who are opposed to the nuclear option but are just not saying anything, hoping it doesn't come to a vote.

When two-thirds of the American people are against something, it's mighty hard for a senator to be for it.