ConfirmThem

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

The President of the U.S. Senate (VP Dick Cheney) has now committed to using his tie-breaking vote if necessary, in order to end the unprecedented minority control of judicial confirmations. While this may not be surprising, it is certainly encouraging:

I would support an effort to restore the constitutional practices that existed before the Democrats started using the filibuster for judicial appointments....Democrats are the ones who altered the traditional practice....It's important that that precedent not be allowed to stand....If you allow that filibuster precedent to stand, in effect you've raised the bar for confirmation of judicial appointments to say that you've now got to have 60 votes to get a judge confirmed. That was never the case before. That should not be the case now.

It will be interesting to see whether undecided Senators agree with Senator McCain that it's vital for the Senate majority to henceforth rubberstamp each and every decision of the Senate minority to veto a judicial nomination.