People may remember that George Mitchell was under serious consideration as a potential commissioner of Major League Baseball back in the mid-1990s after he retired from the U.S. Senate. He had the support of the vast majority of the owners, but MLB's selection process for commissioner required all candidates for that office to be vetted by a selection committee comprised of five owners. A veto cast by any one of those five would effectively kill the hiring of a prospective commissioner.
Mitchell had the support of four owners on that five-man committee.
The lone vote against him was cast by the owner of the Texas Rangers . . . a fella by the name of George W. Bush.
At the time, it was pretty much accepted that GWB was basically exacting his retribution for Mitchell's vindictive approach to dealing with the first Bush administration in Washington when Mitchell was the Senate majority leader.
The political machinations in Washington today may very well be a similar politically-driven process aimed at former Democratic senator Mitchell.
In 1994 there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court and George Mitchell wanted the slot, but Clinton persuaded him to stay in the Senate to push through some important piece of legislation (I forget what it was, but it never made it). Breyer got the SC seat; Olympia Snowe now has Mitchell’s Senate seat.