Mickey Kaus on Rule 22

Kausfiles had a late-night post on the Senate’s Rule 22, which sets the three-fifths rule to stop a filibuster: he calls it “an anti-democratic, extra-constitutional tradition, started by accident in 1806” and “a gratuitous monkey wrench thrown into an already balky governing machine.” [Emphasis in original].

My gut tells me that the 3/5ths rule has a place in the legislative process, but not in the nomination process because it is an extra-Constitutional imposition on Executive power. That is, forget about party politics, I don’t think the Founding Fathers intended for a minority from the legislative branch to have essentially a veto power over the “Advice and Consent” framework in the Constitution.

I am not a lawyer, but I play one on TV.