FLASHBACK 2005
On his own Senate website Shelby sez:
I firmly believe that each of the President's nominees should be afforded a straight up-or-down vote. I do not think that any of us want to operate in an environment where federal judicial nominees must receive 60 votes in order to be confirmed. To that end I firmly support changing the Senate rules to require that a simple majority
Problem is that he said this when the president in office was a Republican. So you would think that he will do the same when the president is a Democrat.
Fast Forward 2009
And when the president is a democrat in Feb 2009 you get what?
Richard Shelby wants Senate to filibuster stimulus bill
February 3, 2009
Dothan Eagle -
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Monday that the Senate should be spending most of its time working on solving the credit crunch instead of passing a hastily-written stimulus bill he believes will not stimulate the economy. Shelby said he is prepared to filibuster the proposed economic stimulus bill, but fears enough Republicans will side with Senate Democrats to override any attempt to block the bill’s passage.
The most funny(or not funny actually) quote to me was this:
"Are we prepared to filibuster? Hope so," Shelby said. "But I’m afraid we may have two or three (Republicans) that might jump ship."
The same guy who was advocating just a simple majority a few years ago. Good thing is that even the right wing blogosphere are finding it hard to defend.
Update: Some of the comments on the right seem a lot damaging for the Senator and surprisingly accurate:
The delay is inexcusable, and if Shelby’s hold gets somebody off his ass to award a contract, good for him.
funky chicken on February 5, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Shelby isn’t fighting to get tankers. He’s fighting to get them built by a European firm that would do final assembly in his state, rather than by Boeing in another state. He’s just another self-serving politician fraking-up our defense.
Maquis on February 5, 2010 at 12:42 PM