Posted on 05/04/2009 7:58:27 AM PDT by jazusamo
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill.
Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reached the deal that will allow the Alabama Republican to take over for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), whose departure from the GOP last week left the committee without a ranking member.
Under terms of the deal, Sessions will serve as ranking member until the 112th Congress, when he will take over the ranking member post on the Senate Budget Committee. Current Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) is retiring at the end of the 111th Congress.
Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, will then become ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.
Last week, Grassley had enlisted the help of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in positioning himself for the top slot on the committee. Under the deal floated then, Hatch would have taken over Judiciary for the remainder of the 111th, with Grassley taking the helm once his tenure on Finance expired.
The seven Republicans who remain on the Judiciary Committee after Specter's departure will meet to vote on Sessions' ascension early this week. Once they do, the decision goes to the full Republican Conference, which usually ratifies decisions the committee makes. Sources could not recall a ranking member vote made by a committee that was not, in the end, ratified by the full conference.
The move is likely to please conservative organizations around Washington who are gearing up for a fight over the eventual nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. The departure of Specter, who had long been one of the leading GOP voices on judicial appointees, had robbed the Republican conference of an obvious spokesman.
Conservative groups, who have already held conference calls to begin organizing a response to President Obama's eventual nominee, were wary of putting Grassley atop the Judiciary Committee if a fight were to break out. The organizations viewed Sessions as the better spokesman, and more likely to lead the Republican charge in questioning the nominee.
Though Republicans are likely to face a filibuster-proof Democratic majority when the nominee heads to the Senate, conservative opposition groups said they would push senators to ask tough questions, in line with those Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito faced when they underwent confirmation hearings.
Leading conservative legal strategists have admitted they have little chance of pursuing a filibuster -- even facing only a slim deficit, Democrats were unable to block either Roberts or Alito -- though that has not stopped them from gathering intelligence on leading contenders for the nomination.
Already, those groups have spread around opposition research on top contenders like Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh.
This is good news.
While Republicans have virtually no chance at stopping any of Obama’s judges from getting confirmed, Sessions will at least make sure they get properly vetted and grilled. No judge will get a cakewalk confirmation.
Grassley’s time is behind him.
Yes, it’s very good news.
Sessions is one of the good guys.
“Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill.”
Here, Here. Great news.
I don't expect to see Sen. Sessions roll over and send SCOTUS nominees to the floor without a full hearing. Unlike his predecessor.
I found it!
All morning I’ve been searching diligently for some GOOD news...here it is!
CAAB will be our guy on the Judiciary Committee!
Ah, one piece of really good news amidst the wreckage.
All I have to ask is:
What would Janice Rogers Brown do?
From a Scottish fLaw to Sessions is a HUGE improvement. Bravo!
YAY!
Surprised nobody has called Sessions a RINO yet like everybody else.
Right on! That's a great way to put it. :)
Hallelujah!!!
Great news...he’s a conservative through and through and I predict will be very good on vetting candidates...
Actually it is Sessions that is the RINO. Today's Republican Party is moderate and socialism-lite. Sessions isn't that, so that really does make him the RINO.
For once republicans do the right thing!!! He is the best man for the job!
LLS
It's probably because he's not one, that I have seen.
For once republicans do the right thing!!! He is the best man for the job!
LLS
For once republicans do the right thing!!! He is the best man for the job!
LLS
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