Lynch at Large

Mark Pryor was on Pat Classic by phone this morning. He is part of the “gang of 14.” That is a bipartisan coalition designed to keep the Senate filibuster free. Not a lot of hard news but Pryor is the “canaryin the coal mine.” The administration is taking Pryor’s temperature with regular consultations with Karl Rove.

Pryor believes the “gang of 14” will hold and also noted that there was no working definition of what exactly might constitute a “extraordinary circumstance,” which might justify filibustering a Supreme Court nominee. He did make an analogy to somebody who thought that the Dred Scott decision should be the law of the land. Lordy me! That was the 1850-something case in which the Supremes affirmed slavery. In other words, there will be no “extraordinary circumstances” to allow a filibuster. Pryor also said that it was exclusively up to the “gang” to decide exactly what might be an “extraordinary circumstance,” and not other senators.

We also touched briefly on what has been deceptively called the “death tax” by right wing extremists in radio and TV commercials. Bottom line: Pryor says the law needs some technical work but that almost nobody in Arkansas pays it since the first about $1 million is exempt from taxation. Wonder how many of those WWII guys from the “greatest generation” really pay that tax? I told Pryor that, whatever it was, I thought it should be TRIPPLED.

The entire interview is about 15 minutes and is in the WAI Radio archives as part of the 10:00 hour beginning about 10:45, The station is linked over yonder on the left.