Pryor committee vote this week?

I’ve mentioned on a few occasions that former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, a Bush nominee for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, is about the worst judicial nominee this White House could possibly come up with.

In light of my minor obsession with Pryor’s nomination, I thought I’d mention that the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on Pryor for this week.

Chances are the vote will go the way most Senate Judiciary Committee votes go — 10 GOP votes against 9 Democratic votes. Pryor, however, is a little more controversial than the usual nominee, so the lobbying is a bit more intense.

With this in mind, if one of your senators is on the Judiciary Committee and you wanted to express your opinion on the Pryor nomination, I’d encourage you to contact your lawmaker sooner rather than later. (If you live in the District of Columbia, of course, you and 600,000 of your neighbors have no senators. Maybe you should call all of the committee members to see if they’d mind changing that fact.)

There are 19 senators on the committee, 10 Republicans — Hatch (Utah), Grassley (Iowa), Specter (Penn.), Kyl (Ariz.), DeWine (Ohio), Sessions (Ala.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Craig (Idaho), Chambliss (Ga.), and Cornyn (Texas) — and 9 Democrats — Leahy (Vt.), Kennedy (Mass.), Biden (Del.), Kohl (Wis.), Feinstein (Calif.), Feingold (Wis.), Schumer (N.Y.), Durbin (Ill.), and Edwards (N.C.).

For what it’s worth, the New York Times editorial board urged the Senate to reject Pryor’s nomination in an editorial today.

“[Pryor’s] extremism and disdain for the legal rights of many Americans make him unsuited to be a federal judge,” the Times said. The paper added, “If a far-right legal group needs a lawyer to argue extreme positions against abortion, women’s rights, gay rights and civil rights, Mr. Pryor may be a suitable candidate. But he does not belong on the federal bench.”

I don’t yet know exactly when the committee vote will take place, but I’ll keep you posted as to what happens.