Obama Judicial Appointments Barely Moving Because Of GOP Blocks

Washington Post:

President Obama has not made significant progress in his plan to infuse federal courts with a new cadre of judges, and liberal activists are beginning to blame his administration for moving too tentatively on what they consider a key priority.

During his first nine months in office, Obama has won confirmation in the Democratic-controlled Senate for just three of his 23 nominations for federal judgeships, largely because Republicans have used anonymous holds and filibuster threats to slow the proceedings to a crawl.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[rollingdivision]

What's good for the goose ...... After 8 years of Democratic stalling in the senate the Republicans have actually learned something.

[talkitreal]

This is what will continue to happen if ANY Republican wins in 2010 -- obstruction , and wasting time, by the Republican DO NOTHINGS!

[rollingdivision]

After the Obama race to force through every liberal dream he can think of, 2010 may just be a year when the label of "do nothings" will be a winner.

[StillAmused]

The Repubes will never forgive the Dems for depriving America of the unique talents of Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Sorry but I'm not buying it. Dems have 60 seats. They can push through anything they want to so long as it's not so ext.reme they lose the centrists. This is just another case of Democrats being spineless and choosing to talk tough and do nothing rather than take action and risk it not working.

[dancucich]

Obama is naive, and it shows.
He thinks the GOP is serious about wanting to be "bipartisan"
and will cooperate for the good of the country

we elected a naive, weak president who cant stand up to bullies

The dems ought to use the nuclear option to change the rules on holds
and filbusters as Bill Frist threatened to do if dems filibustered Alito

The "nuclear option" is designed to bypass the two-thirds vote
requirement to change the senate rules.

The Senate moves to vote on a measure.

At least 41 Senators call for filibuster.

Reid raises a point of order, saying debate has gone on long enough
and that a vote must be taken within a certain time frame.

Biden -- acting as presiding officer -- sustains the point of order.

A Republican Senator appeals the decision.

A Democrat Senator moves to table the motion on the floor (the appeal).

This vote - to table the appeal - is procedural and cannot be subjected to
a filibuster; it requires only a majority vote -the Vice President casts
any tie breaking- vote).

With debate ended, the Senate would vote on the nominee; this vote
requires only a majority of those voting. The filibuster has been closed
with a majority vote instead of a three-fifths vote.


to read dozens of stories on how the GOP majority
used the nuclear option on democrats
go to:

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=%22bill+frist+nuclear+option%22&kgs=1&kls=0

.

[Softnsweet]

Obama is not naive. What he wants to get through he can. Just because he is not fist fighting in Washington the way you would want him to then you call him naive? If Obama did what we wanted him to do then they would be calling him a bully. So please give the man a break.

[thegreenhornet]

first, the republicants stuffed the federal courts with judges who lacked respect for our system of laws and basically wrote their own. now, they are blocking the appointment of judges who would adhere to time honored principles of stare decisis. they unfortunately are succeeding in making the judicial branch of government irrelevant. they do not respect the system of checks and balances our founding fathers created. it is sad to watch them destroy our country with nothing but "earthworm democrats" in the way (excepting Alan Grayson, of course).

[middleoftheroad]

isn't it fair to say both partied do this?

[Ifticar2]

Yep. The Democrats put holds on dozens of Bush's judicial nominees.

What goes around comes around.

[Rule Of Law]

Fillibuster THREATS???

What part of "Majority" do the Dems and Obama not get?

[FuturePrez]

A. Where are these numbers coming from? For several years media has said that George W Bush was unusually successful at confirming judicial nominees, and that the Clinton Administration was the least successful of recent Administrations. Yet, this article suggests the opposite, that Democratic legislators caused GWB's Administration to confirm "fewer...c­ourt nominees than those of any other two-term president in recent history."

B. Anyone who works in or has dealt w/ the US judicial system understands an "empathy standard" is applied regularly and at all levels. It's frustrating - it would be nice for the courts to apply the rules as written; but, if rules were applied this way, we'd have a hugely inequitable system. So, to complain about an empathy standard is naive.

C. Senate Republican threatened to use "the nuclear option" in order to push through GWB nominations. Hopefully, Democratic Senators will keep this in mind if Republican Senators stymie the process as they did during the Clinton years.

[S1m0n]

But, in the end the republicans did not go nuclear, which is a good thing.

~~

From somewhere, the senate judicial confirmation process, which should be a moderating process, in which successive administrations nominate candidates capable of generating broad approval in the senate, became a process in which the broad approval process has been abandoned, and instead candidates about whom the minority party has been increasingly dubious or outright hostile have been nominated, with the assumption that unless the candidate could be shown to be unqualified outright* rather than merely undesirable, the president had to get his way.

I realize for the left, anxious to reclaim lost terrain, this president and senate are a long-sought opportunity to stick a spoke in the wheel of the rightward charge of the Bush era, but the long term goal should be a return to the era of safer nominations a less ideologica­lly-determ­ined courts. Like the Roberts Supreme Court, justice in the US looks like a tennis match or a basketball game, not a committee of wise elders working through a vexing problem.

*The Harriet Miers test.

[FuturePrez]

I agree but I'm not confident that we and many generations will experience a period of "wise elder" justices.

[snuggalee]

I saw a poster a while back, I think it was Castlerider, call him Barrack "Milquetoast" Obama.

I have to agree.... I think my poodle is actually a meaner and fiestier fighter then he is.

He should stand up for these judges he chooses, and make a really big deal about it when their nomination is blocked. It's bad for the country to be denied justice, plain and simple.

[doriath22]

Evidently you seem to believe that anyone who thinks before fighting lacks courage.
All you gotta do is look at the glorious success of the bush junta to see what "fight first, think later" leads to

[scat]

and thank goodness they are.

[LiberTLover]

What an appropriate name you have.

[bzb]

GOP Obstructionism at work.

[scat]

so clever. The dems did the same thing to Bush.

So, are the dems obstructionists?

[doriath22]

The difference is that bush is a criminal

[bzb]

I don't think so Bush never had a spending bill that was blocked

[MoreDimensions]

Clinton President - GOP blocked every judicial appointment they could.
Bush President - GOP screamed like little babies if the Dems held up one appointment.
Obama President - GOP blocks every judicial appointment they can.

The GOP has a two faced agenda driven policy that hurts Americans.

[BambooHarvester]

The gop should be shrunk small enough to fit into a toilet bowl !
~

[VJ2008]

Don't anyone tell the republicans, but all they had to do to later build up their majority again is to see that people are tired of the same ole politics of dirty tricks and smears and lies. All they really had to do was pretend to get along for a little while, but their egos took over. Even now, if they would just stop the nonsense, they could save face and eventually people will forget some of it. Instead, they are making sure people don't forget... No skin off my nose, I just don't get how their strategy is supposed to work for them. President Obama already gave the power back to the people.