ConfirmThem

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3316

Thursday, May 1, 2008
Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226
10:00 a.m.

G. Steven Agee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit

William T. Lawrence to be United States District Judge for the Southern
District of Indiana

G. Murray Snow to be United States District Judge for the District of Arizona

So only 1 Circuit Judge.

Interesting. The ABA hasn't yet issued a rating for Justice Agee. I wonder if they will do so before his hearing or if the committee will process his nominations without one?

No doubt the Dems will have their ABA minions provide Agee with his rating by May 1st. This is really not a good sign. Leahy has said all along that he would speed the confirmation of Agee. This is a strategic move to block any consideration of "controversial" Fourth Circuit nominees Conrad, Matthews and Rosenstein until they can kill those nominations in June with the Thurmond Rule.

The only other nominees whose confirmations Leahy has said he would speed are Kethledge and White. I expect them to get a joint hearing in May after the Dem-controlled ABA rushes White's rating.

THE REPUBLICANS NEED TO START BALKING RIGHT NOW OR THE ONLY NOMINEES CONFIRMED IN MAY WILL BE KETHLEDGE, WHITE AND AGEE!!!

Could someone summarize where the current nominees are in the process, both CCA and District?

How many are waiting to be sworn in?
How many are waiting for a full senate vote?
How many are waiting for a JC vote?
How many are waiting for a JC hearing?
How many are waiting for an ABA rating?
How many seats need a nominee?

http://www.abanet.org/scfedjud/ratings/ratings110.pdf

Agee gets a unanimous WQ rating with one abstention. The ABA must've notified Leahy yesterday of the rating. That's why his hearing was scheduled then. Expect White's to be done in less than a month.

Some quick COA facts:

1) Catharina Haynes was confirmed on April 10th and received her commission on April 18th.

2) Ten COA nominees are waiting for full Senate votes - Keisler, Kethledge, Conrad, Stone, Matthews, Rosenstein, Pratter, Smith, Agee and White.

3) The same ten as in #2.

4) The same ten as in #2. Agee's hearing has been scheduled for May 1st.

5) White is the only COA nominee still waiting for an ABA rating.

6) There are currently 14 open or soon-to-be open COA seats:

First Circuit - 1
Second Circuit - 1
Third Circuit - 2
Fourth Circuit - 5
Sixth Circuit - 2
Ninth Circuit - 1
D.C. Circuit - 2

On January 20, 2009, one of the D.C. Circuit seats will switch to the Ninth Circuit.

There can be no doubt that the 3 Leahy wants to confirm by Memorial day are Agee, Kethledge and Pratter. White would then be zoomed through in June.

I believe Leahy intends to kill all the other nominations. Bush needs to nominate persons to the remaining seats to highlight Leahy's obstructionism.

The best candidate from the Webb/Warner list should be one of them. Who is the best of the 4 remaining names on the Webb Warner List?

In my opinion the best left on the WW list is Lemons. At least get the two VA seats filled. We can blue slip NC and SC under Obama/Clinton if they dont get through this year. That NC seat has been empty since 94 anyway. Still very disappointing. I hope Specter really follows through with what he said he was going to do. Man I hate Leaky Leahy and Dingy Harry.

1. I fully agree that the focus ought be on the Circuit Court nominations.
2. That said, getting more District Court nominees approved is also important and desirable.
3. Obviously several of the DC nominees are held back due to blue slip (LA) or political (WY, TN, Rogan) issues. But, there are still a few apparent anomolies. For example, why hasn't Suddaby (ND NY) had a hearing, given the praise that Schumer gave of him at his nomination? Anyone know? What about Powell in WV, Colm in DE, or the other two more recent NY nominations?

Where is the time to get both Pratter and Kethledge hearings and votes before May 31? If this deal is going to be held up, 1 of the 3 has to be Keisler, or Leahy will have to double up on hearings.

While Reid said he MIGHT let more than three nominees get confirmed in May, I agree with Woodland that it looks like Reid and Leahy plan to stiff the Republicans with some combination of Agee, Kethledge, White and Pratter. It sounds like they are going to fight tooth and nail against Keisler, Conrad and Matthews. That is why I said in my earlier comment that McConnell and Specter need to start SCREAMING (i.e shutting down the Senate) now.

This is a great opportunity for John McCain to show his mettle on judges. Take this on the campaign trail, and lead aggressively on a discharge petition for Keisler, Conrad, and Matthews. It puts him in a great light, and turns up the heat on Leahy and Reid, not to mention Hillary and the Big O.

The date of the Agee hearing by Leahy, Reid & Co. was predictable. It is the precise date that I predicted for the next CCA hearing (at that time Pratter, before the Michigan deal) in a post 2 weeks ago.

Below is a post from Monday that I'm reprinting because it got no response at the time. Democrats are probably using my "Option a" from paragraph 2. Forget Keisler until at least late June, IF Republicans fight all-out for his confirmation, which MUST be their #1 priority. Forget Conrad and Matthews altogether: their confirmation is as much of a fantasy as Rosenstein's, and would merely serve as a diversion from Kiesler.

[I'm afraid next month will be some combination of #1 and #2 [from BoBo's post "Something odd"]. There are compelling reasons for a joint hearing. Kethledge and White are a package after all, and neither side wants the other's nominee to get ahead in the confirmation process. On the other hand, Kethledge has finished the vetting process (they've had 22 months to do so!) while White has just been started next week. No doubt the Democrats have instructed their ABA ally-minions to rush White's evaluation through at lightning speed (won't it be amusing to see how fast they can do it when it's a Dem-Lib nominee), but there is also the FBI check. It will therefore be difficult to schedule a Kethledge/White hearing before the week of May 12-16 at the earliest.

So Reid can either a) schedule a hearing for Agee or Pratter on April 29-May 1 or May 6-8 and then do Kethledge/White later in May; b) hold hearing for Kethledge on the above dates, do White on May 12-16 and stiff Agee/Pratter in May; or c) stiff Pratter/Agee in May and hold the joint hearing for Kethledge and White. For options b. and c., Reid could cover-up his lie about 3 May confirmations by claiming that there's a veritable mountain of vital Senate business to complete. Just look at the Committee hearings of paramount national urgency scheduled this week and next: "Living in the Streets" and "National Security Letter Disclosure" (presumably so quasi-traitors on the Democrat congressional staffs can leak them to the press and to enemies of the United States). I think option b. is most likely. Doing two hearings makes Dems' claims to be acting in good faith more plausible to naive and credulous observers.

Your reason #3 is very unlikely. Democrats are NOT going to confirm Keisler in May, nor will they do so before Agee and Pratter in any case.

I agree that chance of Reason #4 is almost nil. If nothing else, hearings are a great tool for delay and Dems will not sacrifice that. One exception: if it suits their purposes for confirming White super-expeditiously, Dems might waive her hearing.]

Have McCain lead the charge on Keisler, etc.!

If you look at what the Democratic Senators have said in the past few days, they have only mentioned Agee, Kethledge and White as acceptable to them. Pratter is not on any approved list. Specter has no fight left in him. At best, Pratter may be approved later this fall.

Specter and the Repubs got hoodwinked on the 12th DC seat to the Ninth Circuit deal. After the Repubs approved the legislation, Keisler is left blowing in the wind. Leahy is using Pratter's nomination as leverage over Specter to be quiet about Keisler. Specter, in turn, says very little. What a disappointment he has been.

Specter remains strangely quiet on the sidelines. Other than Hatch, where are the other Repubs on the SJC? They have no backbone on a sure winner election issue. I'm hoping that McCain, McConnell and Hatch can lead the charge. But where are the others, especially those Repub. Senators who are not running for reelection?

It is unbelievable that Keisler, Conrad and Matthews, all of whom have no objection from any home state Senator, can be held indefinitely without a vote out of the SJC. Let's see a Discharge Petition for once in our lives. If not, I hope the American people sweep all spineless Senators our of office on both sides of the aisle.

I would hardly call him quiet. He sent letters to HC, BO, and JM last week about Keisler, Matthews, and Conrad. Give it a couple days. Im sure there will be some GOP response particularly from Specter cause he and McConnell both are on record for wanting to move K, M, and C first. I think the Dems have already made up their mind that Keisler, Matthews, Conrad, White, Kethledge, Agee, and Pratter will be confirmed this year. They are just trying to get as much legislative chips they can from the GOP in exchange and also not appear to be giving in, to their crazy Kos base. On another note, Bush should withdraw all the dead DJs like Rogan, Puryear, Connolly, Honaker, and any others that are DOA. I have to say some of them seem like the only reason they were nominated was to stick a hot coal in the eyes of the Dems.

nominations were made with the sole purpose of sticking "a hot coal in the eyes of the Dems." How far have we come from "advice and consent" if that kind of comment even can be made with a straight word processor?

http://standdown.typepad.com/weblog/2008/04/vacancies-in-th.html

"Vacancies in the Federal Judiciary

'Time ticking for Bush's judicial picks,' is Pamela MacLean's report in the upcoming issue of National Law Journal."

I think it has been pretty well established that Bush nominated certain people from states with Dem states that he knew way in advance would anger the homestate senators who controlled their confirmations. Kethledge, Murphy, Getchell, Stone, Rosenstein and Smith were all opposed by their homestate senators, and Bush knew it. That sounds like,"a hot coal in the eyes of the Dems."

I don't think Bush's strategy of antagonism will be too successful in the end. The only reason Kethledge is going to get confirmed is because Bush finally caved in to some of Levin's demands. Getchell and Murphy were withdrawn, and I doubt that Stone, Rosenstein and Smith have any hope of confirmation. That's three seats Bush probably lost for the GOP.

When I say all this, I want to make sure everyone knows that I am not suggesting that Bush should've nominated liberals like White to appease the Dems. I think Cornyn worked the system magnificently with the nominations of Jennifer Walker Elrod and Catharina Haynes, both well-qualified but relatively unknown conservative females. There must've been some of those around in New Jersey, Maryland and Rhode Island.