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By AndrewHyman Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a major figure in the debate about restoring the tradition of up-or-down votes for judicial nominees, as opposed to the new practice of endlessly filibustering those nominations. Senator Nelson, in his previous job as governor of Nebraska, ended up appointing about 45 percent of the judges in that state, and now he is a major player in the federal appointment process. Nelson is up for reelection next year in a state that George W. Bush won with 66% of the vote.

The latest on Senator Nelson is that he, "does not support the use of filibusters to block judicial nominees, but he also doesn't support the use of the nuclear option as a solution . . . . He'd prefer some compromise." Unfortunately, Senator Nelson's recently proposed "compromise" would require more votes to implement (67) than would be required to overcome a nomination filibuster (60). Fat chance of that proposed compromise unblocking any judicial nominees!

Senator Nelson's hometown is McCook, Nebraska which was also home to U.S. Senator George Norris. Ironically, Senator Norris mounted a famous tallkathon against arming the nation for WWI, and so Norris was indirectly responsible for the Senate's first cloture rule in 1917. Norris is described in John Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.