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WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2008 – While Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will stay in office in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration, other Bush administration political appointees will move on, a Pentagon spokesman said today.

If Terri Schiavo finally perishes over the Easter weekend, the roar of fundamentalist rage will sound like the dawn of Armageddon. Televised preachers will blame her demise on the Democratic politicians who did almost nothing to oppose the political intervention in her case. Right-wing pundits will denounce the tyranny of “judicial activists,” an “elitist judicial oligarchy” or just plain “liberal judges.” Republican politicians will urge that she be avenged by sweeping away the constitutional protection of the filibuster, so that the president can pack the federal courts with extremists and theocrats. In a Weekly Standard essay titled “Runaway Judiciary,” Hugh...

It's just plain wrong for a handful of senators – Democrats or Republicans – to prevent the Senate from voting on any presidential nomination. The Constitution is abundantly clear: the president is empowered to nominate officials and judges; the Senate is required to "advise and consent" – or not. The Senate is not authorized to manufacture a procedural obstacle course that prevents the body from voting on the president's nominees. Senate Democrats successfully blocked a vote on 10 presidential nominations during president Bush's first term. They are preparing to do the same thing in the second term. The remedy is...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 — Federal appellate nominee Janice Rogers Brown on Wednesday defended her work as a conservative California jurist and said the personal opinions expressed in some of her speeches would stay separate from her role on the bench.

WASHINGTON – Ending a boycott, Democrats on the Senate Environment Committee joined Republicans in voting overwhelmingly to send Mike Leavitt's nomination as head of the Environmental Protection Agency to the Senate floor for a vote. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 16-2 today to advance the Utah governor's nomination. Democrat Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut voted no, and Democrats continued to voice strong concerns about the Bush administration's environmental policies. "We're not even treading water, we're going backwards," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. .... Inhofe and the nine other Republican members on...

Senate Democrats Allow Leavitt Nomination to Proceed Oct. 15, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ending a boycott, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee joined Republicans in voting overwhelmingly to send Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination as head of the Environmental Protection Agency to the Senate floor for a vote. The 19-member committee voted 16-2 on Wednesday to advance the Republican governor's nomination -- one senator, California's Barbara Boxer, didn't vote, saying Leavitt's answers were too vague for a decision -- though prospects for consideration of the nomination by the full Senate are uncertain. The list of senators who...

Bush Pick for AIDS 'Czar' Misinforms Senate, Groups Charge Fri Oct 3, 8:54 AM ET Add World - OneWorld.net to My Yahoo! , Africa Action WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 2 (OneWorld US) -- During Senate confirmation hearings yesterday, Randall Tobias--ex-Eli Lilly CEO and Pres. Bush's appointee to head the U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS (news - web sites) Relief--included in his testimony incorrect and misleading statements, according to a coalition of religious, youth, and AIDS activists that is urging the Senate to vote down the Tobias nomination.