GOP Begins Blockade of Judicial Nominees

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Roll Call

With less than four and a half months until Election Day, Senate Republicans are shutting off the bipartisan spigot when it comes to confirming President Barack Obama’s nominees to the nation’s top courts and will present a unified front against his circuit court picks through November.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) made the decision to blockade nominations official Wednesday when he informed his colleagues that he would invoke the “Thurmond Rule” from now until after the elections.

Named after the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) — and alternately called the “Leahy Rule” by some Republicans after Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — the doctrine holds that within six months of a presidential election, the opposition party can, and typically does, refuse to allow votes on circuit court judges.

Republican sources said the GOP will impose its blockade on circuit court judges now but that district court nominees will likely continue to be confirmed until at least early September, when cooperation on lower court picks has traditionally ended.

Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_151/GOP-Begins-Judge-Blockade-215369-1.html?pos=hftxt

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Remember when the GOP used to profess a dogmatic belief in the concept of an Up-or-down-vote^TM?
Funny how that changes when they lose a presidential election...
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"Like the three presidents before him, President Bush will spend his last two years in office with the opposition party in control of the Senate. Like them, he has a right to expect that his nominees will receive an up or down vote."
-- Prepared Remarks of U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell." 4 January 2007.

"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end … [This use of filibusters is a] formula for tyranny by the minority."
--- Senate GOP leader Bill Frist, 2004

"All judges deserve an up-or-down vote."
--RNC chair Ken Mehlman, 2005

[Marvin33]

1. Spam deleted by Violet_Crumble (MIR Team)

[LarryNM]

2. The Senate has made itself Obsolete n/t

[sakabatou]

3. God fuck it

>.<

[no_hypocrisy]

4. GOP Press Release: Obama has done NOTHING to fill judicial vacancies.

[CBHagman]

5. McConnell's contact information

For the Senate minority leader, online email forms:

http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact

D.C. number:

[phone]

Louisville Office:

[phone]

Be nice to the staff.

[L. Coyote]

6. Justice in the back seat, greed and politics at the wheel

75 mph in reverse and heading for the big ditch in November

[Igel]

7. It's bipartisan.

We have to assume that in a non-hypocritical world, if the (R) were asking for an up-and-down vote they'd be willing to extend precisely the same right to others when they were in a position to prevent up-and-down votes.

Then again, who was preventing the votes? We'd have to assume that in a non-hypocritical world, that party would have absolutely no problem with others following the same course of action. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

In practice, though, for the last 20 years or so it's been a case of "preventing up-and-down votes is good when I'm in the minority" and "up-and-down votes are good when I'm in the majority." "I" can be either (D) or (R).

Same with this latest move. It's not all that unusual to start blocking nominees months before the elections--the more important the nominee, the longer the black-out period. (D), (R), no matter. But it's only bad when it interferes with God's work or the arc of history or true human values, which is all that we want (and those who agree with us, but to the extent they agree with us). Silly, really, this lack of self-awareness and introspection.