When it comes to Bush nominees, the Senate has been at a standstill for quite a while. There’s news today that there may be a break in the partisan tensions.
There’s no mystery as to how things got so bad. Senate Republicans blocked Clinton’s judicial nominees in his second term, hoping to see a Republican president elected. Once Bush took office, the White House sent a series of ultra-conservative judicial nominees to the Hill for confirmation. Dems blocked the worst of them, and Bush responded with highly controversial recess appointments. Dems responded by blocking all nominees, to which the GOP responded with talk of permanently changing the Senate rules to quash the minority — the so-called “nuclear” option.
With this in mind, it’s encouraging to hear talk of a compromise deal that will ease the hostilities, at least for a little while.
President Bush and Senate Democrats are nearing a deal that would halt judicial recess appointments for the rest of the year in exchange for quick Senate confirmation of 25 of the president’s judicial nominees, Senate sources told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the deal, Bush would not use his constitutional recess appointment power before next year. In recess appointments, the president waits until the Senate leaves town and then gives his judicial nominees a one-year or two-year term on the federal bench.
In exchange, Senate Democrats will not object to 25 of the White House’s noncontroversial judicial nominees that have been waiting for a vote in the Senate. Democrats had halted all judicial nominees until they received a promise from Bush that he wouldn’t use his recess appointment power.
Negotiators were close to striking a deal and expected to make an announcement soon, Senate Republican and Democratic sources said on condition of anonymity.
Call me naïve, but this doesn’t sound too bad for everyone involved.
The White House won’t pull any more (probably unconstitutional) stunts with recess appointments, so the Dems will be happy. Dems also avoid the likely unpleasantness of the GOP making sweeping changes to the chamber’s filibuster rules, which would effectively lead to all-out partisan warfare in the Senate.
The GOP, meanwhile, gets movement on filling judicial slots, which is what they’ve been wanting all along. The most controversial nominees — Estrada, Owen, Kuhl, Brown, et al — aren’t part of the deal, but like I said, it’s a compromise.
What about the politics? As I see it, the deal would be a wash. The GOP would still get to accuse Dems of “obstructionism,” because they’re still standing in the way of the most right-wing nominees. And the Dems still get to accuse the GOP of irresponsible governing, because of the right-wing nominees and the outrageous recess appointments that have already occurred.
The only real problem I see is that Bush would get to use this as an example of his “reaching out” to work with the Dems, but in reality, it’s a tough sell. No one can reasonably consider the partisan environment of the last four years and think Bush has successfully “changed the tone” for the better, whether today’s deal goes forward or not.