Posted on 06/20/2002 6:06:38 PM PDT by Rensselaer
Senate leaders reached a short-term understanding this week on moving the confirmations of more than a dozen judges and a Democratic nominee to the Federal Communications Commission.
But Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) said the final seal of approval on the deal was not likely to come until later this week, when he plans to speak with White House officials regarding the procedures the chamber will adopt to handle the contentious nominations.
"We had a good conversation with Senator Lott yesterday," Daschle said Wednesday, referring to Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), "but we want to have a conversation with the White House to avoid further confusion."
Senate Republicans were more certain that a deal was in hand, so much so that some aides and Senators privately confirmed the deal's basic framework: 14 pending judicial nominations would be quickly confirmed, most likely before the Fourth of July recess, in exchange for the speedy confirmation of Jonathan Adelstein, a Daschle aide who has been recommended to fill a commissioner's spot on the FCC.
Neither Lott nor Daschle would say that the framework was officially an exchange of judges for Adelstein, and in fact aides are hesitant to even call it a deal, referring to it more as an acknowledgement between Senators without anything on paper or even a handshake agreement.
"A lot of it's very nuanced. A lot of this is going to depend on good faith," Lott said.
But Lott said Adelstein's nomination, languishing at the White House since the judicial fight hit its lowest point in early March, would be sent to the Senate soon. "I suspect it will probably be this week," he said.
On semi-independent agencies such as the FCC, by tradition the top four Congressional leaders get to make a selection to fill vacancies, with the White House selecting the tie-breaking chairman. Hill leaders have long considered the practice to be one of their more treasured acts of patronage, one that is generally not to be spoiled by partisan squabbles.
While he said he still intends to vote against Adelstein, Lott indicated he would not use parliamentary tactics to block the nomination outright, virtually assuring a smooth ride to confirmation for Adelstein.
Lott had declared the Adelstein nomination dead after the Judiciary Committee rejected Lott's longtime friend, U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi, to a circuit court seat.
Lott basically admitted that he was singling Adelstein out as payback for what he considered to be Daschle's negligence on allowing Judiciary to reject his friend, although Lott now argues that Adelstein is too young and inexperienced for the job. (Adelstein, who will turn 40 this summer, is older than two of the current GOP commissioners, including Chairman Michael Powell.)
The Pickering-Adelstein fight represented one of the lowest moments in the roller-coaster relationship between the two Senate leaders, and there have been efforts to broker a deal ever since.
Without going into detail, Daschle said he thought he had worked out an understanding with Lott and the White House a "few months ago." But Daschle said the White House pulled back, which is why he wants to get a final approval from President Bush and his advisers. He made it clear that he trusts Lott but has reservations about accommodations with the White House.
"I want to make sure we don't make the same mistake twice," Daschle said.
In exchange, Republicans would get the quick confirmation of 14 judges, including five nominees to the circuit courts. For months, Senate Republicans and the White House have attacked Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for not quickly moving circuit court nominees, which the GOP considers to be its best farm team for future Supreme Court choices.
There are currently a dozen judicial nominees who have been approved by the Judiciary Committee and are awaiting floor action, with half of them hanging in confirmation limbo for a month or longer.
Democrats suggested that those 12 nominees would be the most likely to be quickly approved, a figure that includes three circuit court nominees, among them the controversial elevation of U.S. District Judge D. Brooks Smith.
The Judiciary Committee is slated to approve one more circuit court nominee today. Taken with the other 12 pending nominees, that could be 13 confirmed new judges before the recess, four of whom would be on their way to circuit courts.
That's not quite the 14 judges - five on circuit courts - that Republicans are hoping for, but Lott stressed that deals such as these aren't made or broken based on precise number so much as they are determined by the effort made on each side of the aisle.
"It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to achieve every jot and tittle of the agreement," Lott said.
GOP aides, however, stressed that this was just the first of what could be several smaller deals involving a limited number of nominations.
Notably absent from this deal is Ellen Weintraub, a lawyer at Perkins Coie, the firm that represents Daschle's political action committees as well as dozens of other Democratic PACs. Weintraub is Daschle's pick to fill the a spot on the Federal Election Commission.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the leading opponent of new campaign-finance laws currently being promulgated by the FEC, has said he will block Weintraub's confirmation until there is greater movement on judicial nominees. McConnell, who sits on Judiciary, has not been shy in linking his treatment of Weintraub to the fact that Democrats had opted for lengthy confirmation fights over GOP choices for FECslots, including Bradley Smith and Michael Toner.
Lott hinted that a deal would be in the works for Weintraub, but that it would not be included as part of this preliminary arrangement, which aides say will only involve efforts prior to the Fourth of July recess.
"Weintraub is eventually going to get moved, but probably not before the Fourth of July," Lott said.
A senior GOP aide suggested that Republicans need to see a good-faith movement of these judges, what some have called a "confidence builder." That could easily lead to future deals, one that would likely include Weintraub. And in those future deals, Republicans will likely begin to push for hearings on some of their more controversial circuit court nominees, such as Miguel Estrada.
"If confidence is built, trust is restored and more progress can be made," the aide said.
Well, you can forget it if you're counting on good faith from teeny-tiny tommy!
Who moves first? Will the Whitehouse nominate the Rat or the judges get confirmed first? Then who stabs whom in the back?
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