by James Oliphant
President Bush today hosted a breakfast for his stalled federal appointees. He was joined by Republican senators such as Mitch McConnell and Arlen Specter. He used the occasion to blast Democratic leaders for preventing his nominees from reaching the Senate floor for a confirmation vote:
The confirmation process has turned into a never ending political game, where everyone loses. With more than a 180 of my nominees waiting for the confirmation process in the Senate, it is clear that the process is not working. About half these nominees have been waiting for more than a hundred days. More than 30 have been waiting a year or more. And nine have been waiting for more than two years.
That's no way to treat men and women who have stepped forward to serve our country, and it's got to stop. It's in our nation's interest that this process change. It's not right to treat these good folks this way. These nominees deserve an up or down vote. Many of them have had their careers on hold. They've got spouses whose lives are stuck in limbo. They have children waiting to find out where they're going to go to school.
The White House says that the Senate has 28 judicial nominees and 160 non-judicial nominations upon which it has yet to act.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, Thursday called the White House's complaints unjustified. "The Senate has now confirmed 140 judges in almost three years it has been run by a Democratic majority," Leahy said today. "In more than four years of Republican control, the Senate confirmed just 158."
The committee has scheduled a nominations hearing for Feb. 21, its first hearing for an appeals court nominee since last September.
Two high-profile nominees are caught in a crossfire between the committee and the White House: Mark Filip, the Chicago federal judge nominated to be deputy attorney general, and Steven Bradbury, whose nomination to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has been languishing for almost three years.
Filip is being held up by Sen. Dick Durbin over the refusal of Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey to provide the committee with satisfactory responses concerning the interrogation practice of waterboarding. Bradbury, who reportedly has signed off on legal opinions advocating harsh interrogation practices, appears to have little to zero chance of being confirmed.
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Comments
I'd feel worse except that the 110th GOP Senate has already broken the records for most filibusters just half-way through their term. Remember Frist complaining about the "Tyranny of the Minority"?
Check out the beam in your own eye, Bushies.
Posted by: Jeff V. | February 7, 2008 4:25 PM
"BUSH FINDS EMAILS"
I THOUGHT THIS GUY WAS FROM REGENTS UNIVERSITY, HECK I THOUGHT THEY ALL WERE.
SO WHAT IF THE 108TH CONGRESS AND THE 109TH CONGRESS WERE "HYPONOTIZED" BY MY ABILITY TO "SPEAK"
SO WHAT IF THE 108TH AND 109TH CONGRESS GOT CAUGHT WITH ALL THEIR HANDS, FEET AND WIVES HANDS FEET IN THE MONETARY COOKIE JAR.
GIVE ME MY JUDGES. GIVE ME MY IMMUNITY. GIVE UP ALL THIS "CONGRESSIONAL CHURN" AND TURN THE OTHER CHEEK. GIVE ME MY JUDGES SO I CAN SECURE VOTER SUPPRESSION IN ALL 50 STATES AND NOT JUST "24"
CONGRESS NEEDS TO PASS MY BILLS, BECAUSE I AM THE DECIDER. HECK POPPY IS UP, AFGHAN HEROIN IS UP, THE "SURGE IS UP AND DOWN" DEPENDS ON WHICH ONE OF THE TEN GENERALS WE HAD RUNNING THAT "OCCUPATION OVER THERE"
THIS IS THE TIME, THIS IS THE GOP TIME TO CONSOLIDATE THIS GOVERNMENT ONCE AND FOR ALL. THIS IS THE TIME THAT WE SEIZE OUR BORDERS AND DATA MINE EVERY INDIVIDUAL, DATA MINE EVERY CORPORATION AND THEIR EMPLOYEES EMAILS. THIS IS THE TIME THAT "SKYWATCH" CAN FORENSIC DNA EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN BORN AFTER 1964.
OH YES, THIS IS "SATANS" TIME. SO BACKOFF AND EAT YOUR BREAKFAST.
BUT TOMORROW GET ME MY IMMUNITY, AND GET ME MY EMERGENCY SPENDING CHINESE CREDIT CARD FOR 170 BILLION AND JUST SHUT UP!
MADMAN ON THE LOOSE!
Posted by: Roger Morris | February 7, 2008 4:42 PM
Oh, cry me a river, Bush! Stop nominating klansmen in Brooks Brother suits and maybe you'd get somewhere! Leahy and Durbin -- you're doing a heck of a job!
Posted by: BrwnSknGurl | February 7, 2008 5:16 PM
*gag*
Anybody that gives cover to blatantly illegal acts with bs , after-the-fact , what-is-the-meaning-of-is type arguments , shouldn't be nominated for anything, let alone confirmed. Bush could have had 184 confirmed if he just dropped Bradbury's nomination . Apparently having his torturing/wiretapping *** covered is more important . Unfortunately ,most hearing his whine will probably take it at face value.
Posted by: Mike W | February 9, 2008 10:10 PM
Judicial vacancies exist because President Bush ignores remarkable compromises offered by Senators.
Two 4th Circuit Court seats lack nominees because Bush refuses even to discuss five joint recommendations by Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Jim Webb (D-VA). In three states, Bush rejected offers to elevate his trial judges to Circuit Courts.
Bush chose pending nominees to inflame his right-wing base with artificial vacancies.
Steve Matthews was an officer and director of Mark Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation when it endorsed Rush Limbaugh for a Nobel Peace Prize. Levin ridicules global warming as “nonsense” and Sens. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as “liberal idiots.” In “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America,” Levin thanked Matthews for having “supported me in all I do.”
Robert Conrad Jr. denounced Sister Helen Prejean as a “church-hating nun” and her book Dead Man Walking as “liberal drivel.” He allowed corporations to bury streams with mine waste; which three dissenting judges said “eviscerates” key Clean Water Act language.
President Bush should withdraw controversial nominees and listen to Senators’ “advice and consent.”
see
www.judgingtheenvironment.org
Glenn Sugameli
Senior Legislative Counsel
Earthjustice
Washington, DC
Posted by: Glenn Sugameli | February 12, 2008 2:32 PM