To end the filibuster for the judicial votes is to amend the Senate's cloture rule, Rule XXII, which allows at least 41 members to continue debate on certain issues. To end debate on amending that rule, the rule itself says, "the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the senators present and voting." Precedent notwithstanding, Majority Leader Bill Frist intends to ignore that standard and accept a simple majority vote to end filibusters on judicial confirmations. ...

If there is a way out of this, it may be with reconsidering the rule on the two-thirds vote. Following the rule would ensure Republicans lose the vote but be able to respond to the interest groups pressuring them to hold the vote. To secure that agreement, Democrats would have to give up something too - such as letting some appellate-level nominees through without a fight.

The moderate middle of the Senate certainly could come up with a compromise that benefits both sides.

The current path toward a vote helps neither and harms the Senate. It's not a place that either side should want to remain in.

A compromise would be preferable to the threatened passage by Sen. Frist of a Republican-majority vote for the so-called ''nuclear option.'' But in a rare news conference on the Senate floor, Sen. Frist said he isn't interested in any deal that won't ensure Senate votes on confirmation of all of President Bush's judicial nominees. ...

Sen. Frist addressed thousands of evangelicals Sunday, blurring the line between government and religion with a national simulcast about the proposed rule change. It would be a conservative Republican's dream, but it isn't how a bipartisan body should work. ...

...The Nevada Democrat finally sought a compromise: Take the nuclear option out of consideration. Then, Democrats would allow votes on two of three Michigan nominees for a single appeals court, and possibly a vote on one of four nominees whom Democrats have opposed the most intensely.

Filibusters have been used by Republicans, too, including inaction by a GOP-dominated Senate when President Clinton was in office. The art of compromise should take the Judiciary Committee beyond this impasse. Valuable Senate time should be redirected to substantive debates about the nominees.

What the writer is telling us is that bankers and speculators are looking forward to the opportunity to profit from privatized Social Security accounts, directly through the investment market and indirectly through the government bond market, as this privatization scheme increases the national debt and thereby increases the wealth and power of the bondholders.

Thank you for stating that fundamental truth so clearly.

Richard Hogan, West Lafayette

"The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger. Yes danger from within and without. We need law and order. Without law and order our nation cannot survive." Adolph Hitler, 1932.

Maybe Mr. Lofts could go to a university and actually talk to some students and teachers and even take a class or two and learn something rather than spew this ilk. Unfortunately his call for less government, financial sense, strong national defense and traditional values has been bastardized by this current administration which has increased government intervention into our lives, has no financial sense, destroyed our national defense with this illegitimate war. And it uses the guise of traditional values to wrap it all in the flag.

Stuart Clift

Lake Stevens

It was a cowardly way to slip out the back door. ...

The citizens of the country have elected their leaders -- hired them, actually -- to be strong and bold. They are sent to Washington to lobby and fight for principle and to find practical solutions to dilemmas that bedevil the nation. But Congress is showing its colors.

Some 500,000 illegal immigrants enter America each year. They contribute to Social Security and to the reasonable price of produce and other products. The government is perfectly happy to issue them "Tax Identification Cards" so that the coffers in Washington can be lined with their money. The precedent for issuing a legal document to an illegal resident has already been set by the government itself. Issuing a work permit card should not be such a traumatic decision. Nobody is asking for amnesty. Nobody wants to make illegal aliens citizens. The nation simply wants to be able to keep track of who is here and register people who are helping to drive the nation's economy. If politics is the art of the possible, it's easily possible to get this done. ...

If the people serving don't have the stomach to act, there are plenty of worthy candidates waiting in the wings who do.

Git 'er done.

Let's remember why Social Security was conceived in the first place. Its roots are in that worker/housewife nuclear family that now constitutes fewer than 20 percent of Americans. In the decades preceding Social Security, the Industrial Revolution and other cultural and economic factors broke up the village-centered, extended-family-together lifestyle that had provided some support for elderly people. So some elderly folks literally starved to death, or died for lack of the most basic medical care.

Social Security was designed to prevent that, not to provide a comfortable living for retirees.
And that's what's wrong with President Bush's plan. It would force Social Security to cut benefits, not by the projected 25 percent in 40 years, but by 40 percent or more, making Social Security all but useless as a "safety net" for those Americans -- and there will always be some such Americans -- who cannot or will not responsibly manage private investments. ...

Denny Bonavita

Another vote that would have required automakers to increase fuel economy to a fleet average of 33 miles per gallon was defeated by a vote of 254-177. While automobiles are responsible for 70 percent of the country's oil consumption, lawmakers were willing to see pristine wildlife areas plundered so that Detroit can continue to manufacture and sell huge, gas-guzzling behemoths.

DEAN RICHMOND

Waldport

(1) Re-distribution of United States wealth to third world countries;

(2) Have the United States finance worldwide welfare programs. ...

If the U.N. is allowed to tax our citizens, this action will put an end to United States sovereignty. I don't know about you, but I don't want that gang of international thieves deciding who to give my hard earned dollars to. Right now, the UN plan is a tax on all currency transactions, airline flights and the Internet; more will follow. Contact your congressman and insist that this not be allowed to happen.

AL GUMMERSON
Sumter

That's revenue larger than the annual GDP of Saudi Arabia. Five of the top 10 richest Americans hail from the Walton family. And yet Wal-Mart is what former President Ronald Reagan might refer to as, well, a welfare queen.

As states across the country struggle to balance budgets and keep their Medicaid programs in check, data from Florida and 12 other states show Wal-Mart to be a top corporate beneficiary of state-run, taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid. That is, the retail behemoth deliberately cuts corners on employee health care, forcing a disproportionate number of its employees into state programs. ...

In Florida, Wal-Mart has 91,000 employees. Every time an uninsured Wal-Mart worker goes to the ER and can't afford to pay for treatments, all Floridians are picking up the bill. ...

To the extent that Medicaid is in crisis, Wal-Mart is a significant part of the problem. It does not just shift health-care costs onto taxpayers, it does so at a level well beyond that of any other employer. ...

Wal-Mart sees no problem with this. For evidence, you can go straight to the top. In a two-day "open house" with the press at Bentonville, Ark., headquarters earlier this month, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said, "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value -- with relatively high income limits to qualify, and low premiums."

Government programs are a safety net for low-income Americans, not a competitor to the largest, most profitable company in the world. Scott acts as though public programs are a better deal for workers, when really they're simply a better deal for Wal-Mart.

It's not that Wal-Mart can't afford to do better. It's that Wal-Mart chooses not to.

It's about time someone stood up to them.

Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, is a member of the state House of Representatives.

In my eyes, filibustering may be a nuisance, but it does level the playing field to some degree, especially when the basic reason to filibuster is based solely on partisan voting and not based on the particular case validity nor with constituent input.

If our elected representatives had the backbone to vote on the behalf of their constituents and common sense, not because the president said so, or the maintenance of party control, we just might have a country run by teamwork, not a dictatorship.

Despite its negative connotations, a filibuster is a legitimate congressional privilege. To invoke a filibuster, a senator must have the floor. Then the senator simply starts talking, and talking, and talking. Cloture, a three-fifths majority vote, (60 votes) is needed to end a debate, grinds the blustering to a halt. ...

Roy Schweitzer,
Christiana

The Treaty of Tripoli passed by a two-thirds vote of the Senate and signed by our first President George Washington has an article which reads: "... the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion ..." (Article 11). It is written that the Ten Commandments was given by God to a Jew named Moses.

Since it is claimed that the Ten Commandments is the foundation of American law, we have the Jewish religion to thank for perpetuating these laws until the arrival of Jesus.

Jesus was born of a Jewish mother and raised in the Jewish synagogue. Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).

By Jesus' own words he recognized his roots in Judaism. The evidence is that Judaism is the foundation of Christianity and hence of the United States. But the U.S. Senate and President Washington wrote truthfully, "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Like Jesus and in the spirit of our founding fathers, the foundation of our nation is Jewish!

Wells E. Behee,
New Madison, Ohio