NPR: Senators Fed Up With Secret Blocks On Nominees

[usregimechange]

Nearly a year and a half after taking office, President Obama is still struggling to get scores of his key executive and judicial branch appointees confirmed by the Senate. Almost all of those nominations have been stalled by unnamed Republican senators using what's known as the "secret hold." The practice, which has been around a long time, is essentially an anonymous threat to filibuster any attempt to vote on a bill or nomination.

But now Democrats — and even some Republicans — say they've had it. They want to curtail the use of secret holds or do away with them altogether...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) did not say why, but he objected to moving forward on behalf of an anonymous colleague with a secret hold.

"I intend to object to every one of these, not because I personally have an objection, and I want my colleagues to know that," he said. "But one of the considerations of courtesy on the Senate floor is that if somebody else does, you will honor that."


Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) responded tersely: "This is what drives America crazy about this place."

McCaskill has been leading an effort to ban secret holds, which she says are wrong. "The senator from Oklahoma knows it, and I guarantee most of his colleagues do," she said.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127368817


Got to love Claire!

[Captain Hilts]

1. Raise some Hell about it Sen. McC!

[alstephenson]

2. Keep up the fight, Claire!