Today, the U.S. Senate is tied in a Gordian Knot with two filibusters quietly going on to prevent a simple up or down vote on the President’s nominees to the Judiciary. And unless we find a way to untie that knot, the meaning of “advise and consent” is going to be changed forever. In fact, the Democratic process and the confirmation process, as we have known it since the birth of this nation will be changed forever.

I am not being overly dramatic. For the precedent will be established, whether we mean to or not, that 41 sore losers can always win over 59 advocates. What kind of new math is that? 41 beating 59? Yet, it will become standard operating procedure.

Nowhere else on this terrestrial ball in a democratic form of government can this occur. Except in the U. S. Senate.

Is that the kind of democracy we want to hold up as the great American example to emerging democracies around the world? Is that the kind of democratic government we fight wars for and men die for?

What makes this so downright un-American is that a highly qualified Hispanic who came to this country to work hard and pursue the American Dream is now caught up in an American nightmare. And a hard-working and highly qualified female hits that infamous glass ceiling in the United States Senate of all places. That’s shameful!

And unfortunately, out there on Main Street, USA, in the Wal-Mart parking lots across this nation, Jane and Joe Sixpack don’t even know this injustice is going on. For under the Senate’s two-track rule, a filibuster is kept so low-key that those folks out raising kids and working for a living don’t have time to keep up with this inside baseball. If they ever really understood what a sorry mess we’ve got in this Senate over this issue in they would rise up like that football crowd in Cleveland a couple of years ago and run both teams off the field.

For as Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is based on reason and fair play.” And, there’s nothing reasonable or fair about what’s been happening in the Senate in the past 12 weeks. It’s not just that it’s an expensive waste of time and taxpayer money, but it’s also a flagrant abuse of majority rule, the principle that Democracy operates on everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except in the U.S. Senate.

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, feared some future political leaders would finagle the legislative process in just this way. And he warned in Federalist Paper Number 58 that when it happened, “The fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule. The power would be transformed to the minority.”

Alexander Hamilton agreed with Madison on this. He pointed out in his Federalist Paper #68 that the reason the vice president was given a tie-breaking vote was to secure at all times “a definite resolution of that body.” A “definite resolution,” how well put. Others have also put it well. Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge said, “to vote without debating is perilous, but to debate and never vote is imbecile.” And Democratic Senator Tom Harkin said, “The majority should not be able to run roughshod ... but neither should a vexatious minority be able to thwart the will of the majority and not even permit a meaningful vote.”

The Frist bill of which I’m a co-sponsor has proposed a four-step process that keeps 60 votes on the initial cloture vote, but decreases it by three votes with each of the next three cloture attempts until finally -- after nearly two weeks - it gets down to the majority of 51. This would give the minority plenty of time to plead its case without blocking the majority forever. I don’t see how any fair-minded person can say that’s not reasonable.

In closing let me also say these filibusters have nothing to do with ancient Roman history and Cato the Younger.

These filibusters have nothing to do with the British Parliament.

These filibusters have nothing to do with freedom of speech.

These filibusters have nothing to do with tradition.

These filibusters have nothing to do with protecting minority rights.

These filibusters have everything to do with those special interest groups that failed to elect a majority of the Senate last November but through this perversion of the Senate rules can still work their will even as a minority.

It’s all about who the Alpha dog is in that big special interest kennel over on K Street.

Well, I say it’s time to have an up or down vote on these nominees - that “definite resolution” that Hamilton called for.

It’s time to let the majority rule as was intended.