Posted on 10/17/2002 8:40:11 AM PDT by gubamyster
Republicans concede they are powerless to win the confirmation of Dennis Shedd.
With the Senate preparing to adjourn for the election recess, the fight over the federal-appeals-court nomination of Dennis Shedd has ended for the year, not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with something even less: the Republicans' quiet admission that they are powerless to end the Democratic block on Shedd's confirmation.
It came Wednesday afternoon on the Senate floor. Angry that Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy had reneged on a promise to hold a vote on Shedd, Republicans had been weighing whether to attempt what is called a "discharge petition" for the nomination. The move would have pulled the Shedd nomination out of the Judiciary Committee — and out of Leahy's control — and brought it onto the Senate floor for consideration by all 100 senators. There, Shedd would have won certain approval, since he has the support not only of all Republicans but a few Democrats as well.
But a vote on a discharge petition is not the same as a vote on Shedd. It is, instead, a challenge to the power of the majority party to control what happens both in committees and on the Senate floor. It requires a majority vote, which means that Republicans would be asking some Democrats to defy their leadership and vote with the GOP to bring Shedd's nomination to the floor.
To call such a maneuver difficult would be an understatement; a successful petition would be a grave affront to Majority Leader Tom Daschle. In the face of such a challenge, the Senate becomes tribal; Democrats line up solidly behind their leader, just as Republicans did when they were in the majority and Democrats attempted discharge petitions.
"We would have lost," says one Republican. "It doesn't matter who's in charge or what the issue is. It's a challenge to the Majority Leader's majorityhood."
Nevertheless, Minority Leader Trent Lott apparently felt the need to do something on Shedd's behalf. So yesterday, he took to the floor of the Senate to make a motion.
"The rules of the Senate provide a motion to discharge a nomination, and I want to do that," Lott began. "But I'm under no illusion that I'd be allowed to make that motion and have it succeed under any circumstances. That has been tried on the other side of the aisle when I was Majority Leader, and I know that it would be interpreted as a partisan vote and that the Majority Leader would have to press his members not to allow that to happen."
Lott seemed to be making a good case for not attempting a discharge move. But he didn't stop there. "I feel so strongly about the unfairness of the treatment of this nominee that I have to take some action," Lott continued. "Therefore, it is my intent to ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session, that the nomination of Dennis Shedd to be a Fourth Circuit judge be discharged from the Judiciary Committee and placed on the calendar."
To one's surprise, Daschle quickly objected, and there was no unanimous consent. Lott then had the option of demanding an actual vote on the issue — a vote that would have forced senators to line up, party against party, on the issue of judicial nominations — but he backed away from doing so. And that was the end of that.
Lott's motion was, in the end, a small and almost pathetic gesture. But it was a telling example of the GOP's powerlessness when it comes to confirming the president's judicial nominees. As the minority party, Republican senators have become increasingly angry over the question of judges, but have found Democrats unwilling to bend to political pressure, either from within the Senate or from the White House. Lott's doomed motion on Shedd's behalf was, in effect, the final admission that there is nothing left for Republicans to do except win control of the Senate in November. If they fail, the Shedd scenario — along with the Charles Pickering scenario, the Priscilla Owen scenario, and the Miguel Estrada scenario — will play out again and again in Tom Daschle's Senate.
On the other hand, for the judiciary committee to refuse to allow qualified nominees to receive a fair hearing and a vote by the entire Senate, out of obeisance to the special interest puppetmasters of the democrats on the committee, shows equal contempt for the Constitution.
So, there you have it: bill clinton demonstrated his contempt for the Constitution and the advice and consent process, and now his judiciary committee comrads in the democrat Socialist party are demonstrating their equal contempt for the Constitution and the advice and consent process by refusing to allow it.
VOTE!
Why is it that Democrats and leftists can get their agenda items passed when there's a Republican in the White House, or when there's a Republican in the White House and a Republican House of Representatives, but the GOP cannot get anything done unless it has control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress?!
I don't understand.
(steely)
P.S. Don't worry, I'm perfectly well aware that they won't get their agenda through even after they get both houses of Congress.
I am predicting that the Republicans will take back the Senate. If so, their first act should be to remove Lott from position and put in a real leader as Majority Leader.
Congressman Billybob
Congressman Billybob
I hope you're right about this one.
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