Posted on 05/27/2008 9:40:37 AM PDT by The_Republican
Call Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell old-fashioned. When someone promises him something, the Kentucky conservative expects the promise to be kept. But that is too much to expect of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
In President Clinton’s last two years in office, the Republican majority in the Senate confirmed fifteen circuit court nominations, including two controversial ones - Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon - to the already too-liberal Ninth Circuit. Republicans are demanding that the Democratic Senate move to a vote the same number of Bush nominations as Clinton was allowed by a Republican-controlled Senate in his last two years.
Last month, Reid finally agreed to do something about the Senate’s abysmal progress in moving President Bush’s US circuit court judge nominations to an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.
Given the current Democrat-dominated Senate’s snail’s pace on circuit court confirmations (only eight circuit court nominees have been confirmed so far in this Congress), Reid promised McConnell that at least three nominations would be brought to a vote before the Memorial Day recess began.
Reid broke that promise. Only one circuit court nomination has been brought to a vote. In an interview last Friday, Sen. McConnell told me the deal was that, “We would get three, maybe even more, circuit judges in this past work period which lasted eight weeks. It’s clear now not only was that commitment not kept, but it’s pretty clear to me they didn’t intend to keep it.”
Reid had told McConnell that the promise had been cleared with Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt). In a Thursday speech on the Senate floor, McConnell said “To that end, [Reid] committed to do his ‘utmost’; ‘to do everything’ possible; to ‘do everything within [his] power to get three [more] judges approved to our circuit [courts] before the Memorial Day recess.’ ‘Who knows,’ [Reid] even suggested, ‘we may even get lucky and get more than that [because] we have a number of people from whom to choose’.”
Reid is busy making excuses for failing to keep the promise, indicating that Leahy didn’t move fast enough. McConnell told me, “The easy thing to do, as you notice from my remarks, is to blame it on the chairman of the committee. But the point is that the commitment was from the majority leader and was not kept.”
And, McConnell told me on Friday, “I will be responding appropriately.”
How?
“Well, I don’t want to lay out exactly what the reprisals will be but there will be reprisals and they will begin after the recess.”
“Reprisal” is a very strong word. McConnell is no hothead, not given to outbursts of temper or idle threats. And Reid’s failure to live up to his promise has McConnell pretty riled. His anger is aggravated by the fact that the Democrats apparently never intended to live up to Reid’s promise.
At the moment Reid made the promise, there were several judges whose nominations could have been brought to a floor vote before Memorial Day. Judge Peter Keisler’s nomination had already been subjected to a Judiciary Committee hearing, and had received a unanimous “well qualified” rating from the ABA’s judicial nominations committee, their highest rating. His nomination has been pending for over 700 days.
And then there is U.S District Court Chief Judge Robert Conrad, of North Carolina’s Western District. His nomination has been pending for over 300 days. As McConnell said, the Senate has already confirmed Conrad twice, first as the chief federal law enforcement officer in North Carolina and then to a lifetime position on the federal trial bench. Conrad, like Keisler, received the ABA’s highest rating. His nomination is ready for a Senate vote, but the Democrats chose to pass him by.
Instead of going ahead with nominations that were possible to push through before Memorial Day, the Democrats attempted to give the appearance of living up to Reid’s promise without really doing so. Even in that, they failed.
The Democrats sought to move other nominations that hadn’t gone through the process that they, the Democrats, insist on. One nomination the Democrats chose to push ahead of Keisler and Conrad -- that of Judge Helene White -- hadn’t even been received by the Senate when Reid made his promise. There were only about 35 days to get her vetted through the ABA and the Judiciary Committee. (White had rendered about 2800 decisions since her last confirmation. Each had to be examined by the Judiciary Committee before it would approve her nomination, an impossible task in 35 days).
White’s ABA review hadn’t been received by the Senate before the Memorial Day recess began.
Promises are the currency of American politics. When one side cannot take the word of the other, the system breaks down. McConnell made clear that this broken promise is being taken very seriously.
As Sen. McConnell put it, Republicans and Democrats are still in a “push and shove” situation on judicial nominations. The Democrats have shoved aside their promise, and Republicans are about to push back.
I asked McConnell how the Democrats could avoid Republican reprisals. He said, “What would satisfy me is 15 circuit judges, which is what President Clinton got in the last two years of his term. We have eight: we [need] seven more in a very short period of time. Anything short of that I think will not be meeting the goal that the Democratic Leader and myself set out at the beginning of this Congress, and is completely unacceptable.”
Harry Reid has been outmaneuvered and outclassed by McConnell since this Congress convened in January 2007. What will McConnell and the Republicans do when the Senate returns next Monday?
Reid is filling the Senate schedule with bills aimed at benefiting the Democrats in the national election. When the Senate returns next week to the “push and shove” environment the Democrats created, the first order of business isn’t judicial nominations. Reid has scheduled the Lieberman-Warner global warming “cap and trade” bill for a cloture vote. Republicans are going to have a lot of fun with a bill that would raise the price of a gallon of gasoline by another 50 cents to a dollar.
In the days before the recess ends, Reid might do well to reflect upon the Congress’ current 18% approval ratings, and the 75% disapproval rating that comes with it. Judicial nominations will be an important issue in November. And not only for presidential candidates.
Harry Reid 202-224-3542
Charley Brown
Lucy
football
McConnell
Reid
Promises
Keeping your word is a matter of honor. Harry Reid doesn’t know what honor is. He never heard of any such thing.
-PJ
Guileless, naive Republicans never learn.
Ras now has Congressional approval at a whopping 13%!
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell: A fool for believing the lying demscum.
Why oh WHY can’t Republicans see that appeasing demscum on the national (political) arena is EXACTLY the same as appeasing terrorists in the international arena? It is a show of WEAKNESS that just invites MORE lying/terrorism.
How about this for a “reprisal”...
The next time they have one of these one minute “pro f-up” (sorry, pro-forma) Senate sessions, have a number of Republicans there to do whatever they need to do, and to make themselves available to the friendly media who will cover them, explaining how the Democrats are subverting the power granted to the President by the Constitution to make recess appointments.
That would be a good start. And during floor statements, each Republican speaker has a copy of the Constitution that states the President’s power, and a large poster board with that phrase on it, in large print and highlighted.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIINNGGGGGGGGGG! /sound of alarm clock waking me from my dream
What the Republicans do too often is the equivalent of making payment on a private verbal quotation.
I think back to last year's amnesty vote. Conservatives were made out to be the extremists, because we asked for demonstrable action (limited border enforcement) before giving comparable action (limited amnesty).
How often have we answered the "You can't deport thirty million" canard with "You can't let everybody stay without at least picking out the rotten apples"? The whole damned amnesty premise started out with the assumption that everybody stayed and they'd negotiate up from there with guest worker programs and such. A true compromise would be along the lines of "We give x agricultural guest worker visas for every y verified criminal deportations" rather than "If LaRaza get to screw the middle class by importing x million welfare cheats, then the Chamber of Commerce gets to screw the middle class by importing y million agricultural workers plus H1B's."
“my friend on the other side”
The thing is they are all lunch buddies and party goers who mingle and hang with alot of the same crowd.
They all know the sytstem, they exploit it and they get away with it all at our expense.
They all butter each others bread...
Wonder why they left out: Corrupt, Asshole, Traitorous bastard invested in defeat and ruinous politician?
I can’t for the life of me figure out how he got elected Leader. I know it wasn’t his looks, brains, silver tongue, or charisma.
The Democrats ALWAYS play hardball - the “republicats” are still in the marbles stage...
The “republicrats” have been playing Charlie Brown to the Democrat’s Lucy as the ball holder —— they keep running at the ball and Lucy keeps pulling it away at the last moment, which ALWAYS leads to Charlie Brown falling on his ass...
They get no sympathy from me — until they LEARN how the “game” of politics is played...
The answer of course is that the Democrats KNEW they needed a leader who was comfortable LYING, CHEATING, BACK STABBING and CORRUPT.....while turning a blind eye to the welfare of America.
It’s ALL about THEM....and gaining power and wealth...
The “good people” of Nevada provided such a “man”......and continue to enrich his relatives and friends still in Nevada or with him in Washington.....
It’s approaching the point where one can seriously consider becoming a militant Islamist - or whatever - just to play a role in their destruction.....
When McConnell promises reprisals, you can bet they are coming.
It will be interesting to watch. This Democrat Congress has the lowest approval rating in history. These worthless idiots need to be dumped.
While out of power - how much can he hurt them?
The last time the Republicans were "in power" they stupidly offered to "share power" with the Democrats -- I haven't forgotten nor forgiven...
Republicats have become the village idiots whom everyone laughs at or bullies.
They long ago ceased to be a threat to anyone, except America.
Perhaps a decade or two under the thumb of the Reids, Obamas, Kennedys and Clintons will wise up America or seal her fate.
While out of power - how much can he hurt them?
The Dems fizzle here courtesy of McConnell:
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