ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole gave a pretty good speech on April 27, and here's a piece:

Liberal special interest groups are now spending millions of dollars across the country on television ads in support of judicial filibusters. One cannot help but reach the conclusion that these organizations, having failed to defeat President Bush at the ballot box in November, are now trying to advance their own liberal agenda through the only avenue left open to them: the federal courts. The judicial filibuster is their way of establishing a liberal litmus test. If you are not a liberal activist, you cannot serve on a federal circuit court of appeals…or at least that’s what the new standard appears to be.

Until now, every judicial nominee with support from a majority of Senators was confirmed. The majority-vote standard was used consistently throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries --- for every presidents’ nominees, Republican and Democrat, even Whig, until George W. Bush’s judicial nominations were subjected to a 60-vote standard.

Speaking of television ads, there's a news report today that conservative groups are not going to silently let three centuries' worth of wise tradition go down the drain:

An organization with strong Republican ties intends to spend $1.5 million on television commercials over next two weeks to help Senate GOP leaders in a showdown over President Bush's judicial nominees….Progress for America intends to advertise in a half-dozen low-cost states in the coming week, Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota and Rhode Island according to the memo.

The Progress for America web site includes an April 27 article from Roll Call, which says this:

81 percent of those tested agree with the idea that "even if they disagree with a judge, Senate Democrats should at least allow the President's nominations to be voted on." Only 18 percent disagree with that statement….The results stand in stark contrast to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday afternoon that showed voters by a 2-to-1 margin against changing Senate rules to bar Democrats from opposing Bush's judicial nominees.

We already discussed that bogus Washington Post poll.