ConfirmThem

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLAT...

"[Bush] called on the Democratic-run Senate, in the final days of his presidency, to vote on filling 34 vacancies in the federal circuit and district courts. Realistically, there is no chance of that happening if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wins the White House, since his colleagues in the Senate would simply wait for him to be inaugurated and come up with his own list of nominees.

Bush criticized the Senate for the "ruthlessness that now characterizes the confirmation process." He urged the Senate to take partisanship out of the process and end "tricks and gimmicks" such as demanding that all election-year nominees be consensus choices.

Democrats say they have confirmed a total of 326 of Bush's judicial nominees, and that just 26 are pending now. They note that at the end of the Clinton administration with Republicans in charge of the Senate, there were 63 circuit and district court vacancies, far higher than the vacancy rate now.

"As the stock market continues its precipitous drop, for some strange reason he feels the need to give one more speech criticizing the Senate for not confirming judges?" said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. 'Yeah - that is just what the country needs right now. The fact is, Democrats have been much fairer to these nominees than Republicans ever were.'"

Courtesy of How Appealing,

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/10/20081006-5.html

"Unfortunately, the broad, bipartisan, and timely support for Chief Justice Roberts has increasingly become the exception. Over the years, the "advice and consent" clause of our Constitution has been subjected to serious abuse. Members of the Senate seem to embrace the "advice" part. It's the "consent" part that seems to be the problem.

Perhaps the best demonstration of this problem is the story of Miguel Estrada. Miguel was one of my first nominees to the courts, and he had an inspiring personal history. He was an immigrant from Latin America who came to the United States with little knowledge of English. He came to live the dream. He studied hard, and he worked hard, and he made his way to Columbia University, and then Harvard Law School. He was a Supreme Court clerk. He prosecuted crimes in the U.S. Attorney's office in New York, and he served in the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton.

When Miguel Estrada was nominated for a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court, he received a unanimous well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association. Yet for more than two years he awaited a simple up or down vote in the United States Senate. He never got one. For the first time in history, the Senate used a filibuster to block a nominee to the Court of Appeals. This fine American endured years of delay; he had his character unfairly attacked, and ultimately withdrew his name from consideration -- all because a minority of senators thought they would not like his rulings on the bench and worried that a President might one day elevate him to the Supreme Court.

Miguel Estrada deserved better. He deserved a more dignified treatment from the United States Senate. And the American people deserve better behavior from those they send to represent them in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

Unfortunately, Miguel Estrada's experience is not an isolated one. Many other well-qualified nominees have endured uncertainty and withering attacks on their character simply because they've accepted the call to public service. Those waiting in limbo include: Peter Keisler for the D.C. Circuit, Rod Rosenstein for the Fourth Circuit, and dozens of other nominees to district and circuit courts across this country."