Republican leaders yesterday threatened a “total shutdown” of Senate business if Democrats keep holding up President Bush’s appointments to the federal bench.
“It could cause major meltdown,” Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said after Democrats postponed a committee vote on the nomination of Leslie H. Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Mr. Lott said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, was “very mad” about judicial appointments and could bring the narrowly divided chamber to a standstill if Democrats don’t speed up the confirmation process.
“It could be total shutdown here pretty soon.”
Just when I thought Republican hypocrisy couldn’t get anymore galling, these clowns manage to kick things up a notch.
If Senate Republicans want to pick a fight over this, let them. The facts are on Democrats’ side.
There are two angles to this. First, is the fact that the new Democratic majority has been approving plenty of Bush’s judicial nominees, so Republicans have nothing to complain about. Second, considering how the Republican majority acted in the final two years of Clinton’s presidency, the GOP ought to be thankful Leahy & Co. have been acting in such good faith. Throwing a tantrum and threatening a “major meltdown” is utterly ridiculous.
Let’s take these one at a time. On the first point, it’s hard to accuse Senate Dems of being irresponsible on judges. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) whined that Democrats “intend to slow walk judicial nominations and throw up as many roadblocks as they possibly can,” but the numbers show otherwise. Since the start of the 110th five months ago, the Senate has approved three circuit court justices (including last month’s 91-0 vote to put Debra Ann Livingston on the 2nd U.S. Circuit) and 15 district court nominees.
Indeed, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Leahy’s leadership, has moved more of Bush’s would-be judges to the floor than a comparable period under Arlen Specter’s (R) leadership.
And then there’s the second point. When Orrin Hatch ran the Judiciary Committee during Clinton’s presidency, 60 Clinton nominees never even got the courtesy of a hearing. Hatch didn’t filibuster the nominees — a filibuster is only needed if the would-be judge has a chance of being confirmed on the Senate floor — he refused to even consider the merit of the nomination.
Indeed, let’s compare apples to apples. 2007 is the seventh year of Bush’s presidency, 1999 was the seventh year of Clinton’s presidency. Both saw Senate Judiciary Committees led by a member of the opposing party. In the first five months of 2007, a Democratic Judiciary Committee has approved 18 judicial nominees. In 1999, a Republican Judiciary Committee only held seven hearings on nominees over the course of the entire year.
And while we’re at it, let’s also remember that Hatch abandoned every rule on the nominating process that Dems had always followed. What’s more, as Kevin Drum explained a while back, Hatch also created new rules as he went along.
* In 1998, for no special reason, Orrin Hatch decided that only one senator needed to object to a nomination. This made it easier for Republicans to obstruct Bill Clinton’s nominees.
* In 2001, when one of their own became president, Hatch suddenly reversed course and decided that it should take two objections after all. That made it harder for Democrats to obstruct George Bush’s nominees.
* In early 2003, Hatch went even further: senatorial objections were merely advisory, he said. Even if both senators objected to a nomination, it would still go to the floor for a vote.
* A few weeks later, yet another barrier was torn down: Hatch did away with a longtime rule that said at least one member of the minority had to agree in order to end discussion about a nomination and move it out of committee.
And now Senate Republicans are crying? They’re threatening a “major meltdown”? They’re whining about shutting down the chamber?
Please. If the Senate Republican caucus doesn’t want to be considered a joke, they ought to stop acting like one.