WP: Frist Protest at Princeton Is Lesson in Art of the Filibuster

If only Senate filibusters were this enlightening.

Princeton University students and faculty have been talking round-the-clock to protest the legislative strategy of a famous alumnus and benefactor, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). In what some might consider an act of ingratitude -- even by college students' standards -- protesters have lectured, read and generally droned on outside the Frist Campus Center, built with $25 million from the senator's family.

The speakers are protesting Frist's threat to change Senate rules to ban filibusters of judicial nominees. Democrats have used the parliamentary delaying tactic to block confirmation votes for 10 of President Bush's appellate court nominees.

The campus talk-a-thon started Tuesday and continued into the weekend. Some protesters honored Senate history by reading from phone books, but many were more high-minded. They read from biographies of federal judicial nominees, poetry, the Constitution and Shakespeare's plays.

Physics professor Chiara Nappi lectured on the origin and behavior of elementary particles. "I support the efforts of these students in defending the rights of the minority party and attacking conservative attempts to reduce civil liberties," she told the campus newspaper, the Princetonian. "I disagree with what Frist is trying to do, and because he has strong ties to Princeton, we have the duty to take a stand."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100708.html

Thanks for the uplifting post, kskiska!!

b_b

Some of them smart kids IS smart! ;)

Rock on, Princeton.

any cause should be in the Senate representing us, even if that did mean booting out John Kerry

but do you want a means test for representation?

oh, Josh Marshall's been following this all weekend at TPM

:kick:

In what some might consider an act of ingratitude -- even by college students' standards -- protesters have lectured, read and generally droned on outside the Frist Campus Center, built with $25 million from the senator's family.

No room in the piece to mention that legislators have showed up to support the students, or that the public has fed and encouraged them.

Oh, no. But there's the allusion that almighty, wealth should BUY these clowns the right to destroy a govt based on THREE SEPARATE BRANCHES. To call them on it risks an appearance of ingratitude???

:banghead:

Far be it from the US media to ever stiff the other side :eyes:

snip>
The scene turned rowdy on Tuesday when 20 students from the College Republicans showed up with anti-filibuster signs and a cardboard cutout of President Bush. For two hours more than 100 students crowded around the filibuster, demonstrating their views with signs and chants, like "Five, six, seven eight, Bill Frist is really great!"

Tuesday's competing protests coincided with NBC cameras filming for a segment on the Princeton demonstration for the program "Hardball." A filibuster organizer, Asheesh Siddique, debated Rob Biederman of the College Republicans on the proposal to bar filibusters on judicial nominees.