The game has been fairly predictable at this point. Republicans will argue that Dems have blocked 10 Bush judicial nominees … and Dems respond that Republicans blocked over 60 Clinton judicial nominees. Republicans then argue that Dem filibusters are unprecedented … and Dems respond by pointing out 17 other judicial filibusters, most of which came at the hands of the GOP. Republicans then argue that blocking nominees with high ratings from the ABA is unprecedented … and Dems respond by pointing to 10 Clinton appeals court nominees who received unanimous high ratings from the ABA but were nevertheless blocked by the GOP.
The latest in this long line of entertaining debates comes by way of Byron York.
“It is important to remember that Democrats already have killed three nominations. Miguel Estrada, Carolyn Kuhl, and Charles Pickering, all filibustered, all chose not to be renominated for their positions. Estrada and Kuhl apparently had enough of the process. Pickering was given a brief recess appointment to the bench but chose to retire rather than face a new confirmation fight. Any count of Republican concessions to Democrats would begin with the number three.”
Excellent. York wants to shift the focus on Dem “obstructionism” to include not just the would-be judges facing filibusters but also those who withdrew from the process rather than deal with Dem opposition. Under York’s framework, the list of Bush’s blocked judges is bigger and therefore a more serious outrage for Republicans.
That’s great, of course, because if we play by GOP rules, and Dems get to include Clinton nominees who withdrew rather than wait around for Republican obstructionism to end, our list gets bigger too. Much bigger.
* Charles Stack withdrew his nomination in 1996 because Bob Dole blocked him from consideration.
* John Snodgrass withdrew in 1995 after he become frustrated with the long delay in the Senate confirmation process, caused by Republican obstructionism, and he decided to pursue other career plans.
* Leland Shurin withdrew in 1995 after waiting more than two years for consideration. “It’s time for me to get on with my life,” Shurin said.
* James Ware withdrew his nomination in 1997 after Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) raised concerns about Ware having lied about his childhood in Birmingham, Ala.
* James Lyons withdrew in 1998 when his nomination was blocked by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.)
* John H. Bingler, Jr withdrew in 1997 after Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum blocked his nomination for two years.
* Bruce Greer withdrew in 1996 after waiting in vain for over two-and-a-half years. “For many months I have been promised a public hearing before the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee,” Greer wrote to President Clinton. “However, as each potential hearing date approached, the Committee sought ‘further information’ on issues already exhaustively investigated and cleared by the FBI and the Justice Department.”
* Michael D. Schattman withdrew in 1998 after then-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) blocked his nomination for over a year, citing Schattman’s alleged political “activism.”
* Frederica Massiah-Jackson withdrew from her long fight to sit as the first black woman on the federal bench in Philadelphia in 1998, after John Ashcroft, among others, blocked her nomination from coming to the floor.
* Gail S. Tusan withdrew in 2000 from her fight to become the first black woman ever picked for a federal judgeship in Georgia after she ran into Republican opposition. “Today’s political acrimony has so perverted the confirmation process that it no longer resembles the process outlined in my eighth-grade son’s civics book,” Tusan said.
So, Byron York, are you really outraged about three Bush nominees who withdrew rather than put up with Dem opposition? If so, shouldn’t Dems be three times as outraged since we had three times as many Clinton nominees withdraw?