Bush to Fight for Failed Judicial Nominees

The White House announced yesterday that 20 nominees to the judicial bench who did not receive Senate confirmation in the last congress will receive another chance. He will renominate the very same people to the very same spots. The Senate rules on filibusters may have to change if he is to get a vote on some of these folks. If this is how he intends to spend his political capital, then he is in grave danger of debasing that particular currency.

In the post-factual world of the Bush administration, the fact that the Senate didn’t put these judges on the bench means that the Democrats there are obstructionists who are obstructing the will of the people. In fact, the Senate has confirmed more than 200 of his judicial appointments. Only 10 of his nominees were voted down. In short, he got about 90% of what he asked them to do.

Constitutionally, all federal judges must receive Senate confirmation. Section 2 of Article 2 in the US Constitution is pretty clear on this. The president “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States.” And if the Senate decides not to give its consent, well, that’s rather what the Founders thought should happen on occasion.

Part of the problem from Mr. Bush’s perspective is the filibuster. According to the Senate’s own website glossary “cloture” is “the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.” Talk is that the GOP will reduce this to just 55 votes for judicial nominees – not coincidentally the very number of Republicans who are in the Senate.

Senator John McCain has already pointed out the danger of this approach. Someday, the GOP may be in the minority. A wise political law says never create powers one wouldn’t wish to see wielded by the opposition. Moreover, there are some Republican Senators who don’t believe the White House should tell the Senate what its rules should be. Mr. Bush is a man who values loyalty, and that is admirable. However, politics is the art of the possible. Surely, he can find a different 20 right-wing reactionaries to fill those jobs. Yet, if he insists on charging straight ahead, he may find that the leader he most resembles if George Armstrong Custer.

© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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