Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Grim Picture for Owen
NRO ^ | 09/04/02 | Byron York

Posted on 09/04/2002 2:41:26 PM PDT by gubamyster

It appears that Senate Democrats are ready to kill another Bush nominee.

At this moment, it appears Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have decided to kill the nomination of Priscilla Owen, President Bush's choice for a seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. At any other time, one might expect such a vote to be the subject of intense interest on Capitol Hill, at the White House, and in the press. But in light of the Iraq situation, the debate over homeland security, and the media's focus on the upcoming anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, it is possible the decision will attract relatively little attention.

The vote is scheduled for Thursday morning. The committee is divided between ten Democrats and nine Republicans, so Owen needs one Democratic vote — to go along with unanimous GOP support — for her nomination to be sent to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. So far, no Democrat has expressed support for her.

"It looks very grim," says one Hill Republican. "It doesn't look good," says another. "All indications are that they have the votes [to kill the nomination]," says a third.

If she is rejected, Owen will be just the second judge voted down by the Judiciary Committee since 1991 (the other was Charles Pickering, another of President Bush's nominees, voted down on a party-line vote earlier this year). Owen's will also be, according to Senate Republicans, the first nomination ever killed which involved a nominee who received a unanimous well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association and who had been granted a hearing before the Judiciary Committee.

In recent weeks, GOP hopes for saving the Owen nomination centered on Delaware's Joseph Biden and Wisconsin's Russell Feingold. But those hopes rested mainly on the fact that neither senator had publicly come out against Owen. Pessimism about Biden's vote spread among Republicans yesterday, and there is no reason to believe that Feingold, who broke ranks with his party to support the nomination of Attorney General John Ashcroft, will cross his party again to vote for Owen. "Feingold was a personal friend of Ashcroft's, and that's how we got that vote," says one Republican. "He's not a personal friend of Priscilla Owen."

What is striking about the Owen situation is the relative lack of public discussion or apparent concern about the issue. There are Republicans who are outraged, but much of the raw feeling has been kept behind closed doors. Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the committee, is said to have erupted in anger Wednesday morning as he read the New York Times editorial, "The Wrong Judge," recommending that Owen be defeated. Hatch was still visibly angry a short time later when he did an interview with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. But few other Republicans have brought up the nomination in the last few days — as Democratic opposition solidified.

In addition, there appears to be little GOP support for an all-out fight on Owen's behalf. "It's like our side has given up, and we don't care, and we're not going to make any noise about it," says one Republican. "It's just, 'Too bad, we lose.'" What makes the situation particularly galling to some in the GOP is that Democratic opposition to Owen has been based on relatively narrow grounds, most notably her opinions in a few cases involving the Texas law that requires underage girls to notify their parents before having an abortion (a law that has wide public support). "They don't have a case against her," the Republicans says. "She's a woman, she's unanimously well-qualified, and the only thing they have against her is that she is with 82 percent of the American people on the issue of parental notification."

After the defeat of the Pickering nomination last March, a number of Republicans believed the party had done a poor job of fighting on Pickering's behalf. There were strategy meetings in the White House, the Senate, the Justice Department, and elsewhere, all designed to come up with ways to ensure that such a defeat did not happen again. Now, for all the planning and all the resolve, it appears that next defeat is just hours away.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: judicialnominees; priscillaowen

1 posted on 09/04/2002 2:41:26 PM PDT by gubamyster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: gubamyster
What a rotten shame. I just wonder, do the Democrats EVER learn? What goes around comes around.
3 posted on 09/04/2002 2:54:16 PM PDT by IVote2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IVote2
For some alliterative electioneering posters:

Republicans Respect Families
Democrats Destroy Families

4 posted on 09/04/2002 2:58:14 PM PDT by toenail
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: William Creel
Personally, I assign as much blame to the third-party candidates who defeated John Ensign in 1998 (any Republican with a pulse could have won the NV open seat in 2000) and Slade Gorton in 2000 (64,000 votes with a margin between Gorton and Cantwell of about 2000 votes).

Priscilla Owen and Charles Pickering would have been confirmed in a Republican Senate. Instead, they are being borked.
5 posted on 09/04/2002 3:00:16 PM PDT by hchutch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: IVote2
"What a rotten shame. I just wonder, do the Democrats EVER learn? What goes around comes around."

BS. Pubbies just don't play the game that way. Dems=evil...Pubbies=Play Nice

PAH
6 posted on 09/04/2002 3:09:45 PM PDT by lawdude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster
GOP hopes for saving the Owen nomination centered on Delaware's Joseph Biden and Wisconsin's Russell Feingold. But those hopes rested mainly on the fact that neither senator had publicly come out against Owen. Pessimism about Biden's vote spread among Republicans yesterday, and there is no reason to believe that Feingold, who broke ranks with his party to support the nomination of Attorney General John Ashcroft, will cross his party again to vote for Owen. "Feingold was a personal friend of Ashcroft's, and that's how we got that vote," says one Republican. "He's not a personal friend of Priscilla Owen."

Too bad that Hillary's not on that committee.

Priscilla looks like the type of person who might be a personal friend of Hillary's hubby, if you catch my drift.

7 posted on 09/04/2002 3:11:03 PM PDT by MurryMom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster
I watched the hearings last month and was so very impressed with Judge Owens and so disgusted with the democrats. Towards the end of the hearings Chucky Schumer started off about how the politics of personal destruction ON BOTH SIDES needed to stop...was very civil...I was IN AWE. But, after softball questions...he ended demanding that she say how she would have voted in the Roe vs. Wade decision if she were part of the supreme court in the 70's. SAY WHAT???

A week later Sen. Mike Dewine was the surprise speaker at our Rotary meeting. I commented on the hearings and asked about Judge Owen's status. He agreed the hearings were ugly but felt that this was one that would be confirmed.

Can anyone provide a link of phone numbers, faxes and emails of the judiciary. This one really pisses me off! A woman deserves special treatment UNLESS she is conservative!!!
8 posted on 09/04/2002 3:15:59 PM PDT by dutchess
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: William Creel
Please read reply #8. This one really burns me and I am ready to fight!
9 posted on 09/04/2002 3:17:24 PM PDT by dutchess
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MurryMom
Priscilla looks like the type of person who might be a personal friend of Hillary's hubby, if you catch my drift.

So in other words Owen is someone you could get behind.

10 posted on 09/04/2002 3:31:05 PM PDT by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster
RE-NOMINATE HER AGAIN!

That's what I would do just to stick in the demonrats faces.

11 posted on 09/04/2002 3:33:51 PM PDT by AmericaUnited
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MurryMom
Priscilla looks like the type of person who might be a personal friend of Hillary's hubby, if you catch my drift.

From what I have read about Owen, she is way too smart to have anything to do w/ the Clintons.

12 posted on 09/04/2002 3:38:32 PM PDT by gubamyster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MurryMom
No.. she is an honorable woman, not a sleazebag, which is his preference.
13 posted on 09/04/2002 4:27:53 PM PDT by IVote2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster
"She's a woman, she's unanimously well-qualified, and the only thing they have against her is that she is with 82 percent of the American people on the issue of parental notification."

And we still can't win. It blows my mind.

14 posted on 09/04/2002 4:54:35 PM PDT by Dan De Quille
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster; sayfer bullets
A "THEY DID IT" BUMP


Senate Judiciary Democrats Place Partisanship First
Steve Lillienthal - FreeCongress.org
Thursday Sept. 5, 2002
Washington, D.C. - The Senate Judiciary Committee, in a strict party-line vote, rejected Priscilla Owen for a federal appeals court seat Thursday.
The Free Congress Foundation strongly criticized the Committee's refusal to send Texas Supreme Court Justice Owen's court of appeals nomination to the full Senate.

"Today's party-line vote shows that Democrats on the committee don't care whether a nominee is fair, qualified, or committed to following the law. All that matters is whether she will toe their political line as a federal judge," said John Nowacki, Director of Legal Policy at the foundation.

Democrats contended that Owen, 47, has been an anti-abortion and pro-business judicial activist whose opinions and rulings were overly influenced by her personal beliefs.

Nowacki countered: "Justice Owen has demonstrated fidelity to the law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent," Nowacki said. "Just as importantly, she believes that a judge's personal ideological views have no place in the courtroom."

"As the American Bar Association recognized, she has not only the intellect, judgment, and experience for the Fifth Circuit, but also the open-mindedness, freedom from bias, and commitment to equal justice that is necessary in a federal judge. That's why the ABA awarded her its highest rating, a unanimous 'well-qualified.'"

"Judiciary Committee Democrats have instituted an ideological litmus test for nominees, making agreement with their politics on divisive issues more important than anything else. Because Justice Owen would not give them an ideological IOU as the price of confirmation, she won't get a vote before the full Senate. The Democrats on the committee don't want to take the chance that their colleagues will value qualifications, experience, and integrity above politicizing the judiciary."

"As Sen. Joseph Biden has said, the full Senate - and not the Judiciary Committee - is charged under the Constitution with advising and voting on judicial nominations. Today, ten Democrats stood in the way of every other senator being allowed to do his or her constitutional duty."

"When he nominated Justice Owen, President Bush said that every judge he appoints will be someone who understands that their role is to interpret the law, not to legislate from the bench," Nowacki said. "Priscilla Owen fits that description perfectly, and the committee did the country a disservice by preventing a full Senate vote on her nomination."

15 posted on 09/05/2002 3:04:21 PM PDT by sayfer bullets
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson