McConnell Not Satisfied with Today’s Confirmations
By Curt Levey Posted in Uncategorized — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The Senate confirmed three district court nominees today: Mark Davis of Virginia and Stephen Limbaugh and David Kays of Missouri. Sen. McConnell took the opportunity to chastise the Democrats about their obstruction of circuit nominees and to again make good on his pledge to slow down the Senate until the obstruction is eased. From McConnell’s office:
Although the Majority fulfilled their commitment from last week to confirm three more District Court nominees today …, Leader McConnell did not feel these actions were sufficient in light of the continued lack of circuit court confirmations. … Therefore, Leader McConnell invoked the two-hour rule with respect to the Judiciary Committee meeting today. This will affect the Committee continuing its hearing this afternoon on interrogation. In order for the Committee to continue the hearing this afternoon, the Democrats will be forced to recess the Senate circa 2:15, and the Senate will be in recess for the remainder of the Committee’s hearing.
Glen Conrad as a pawn
by BoBo
If McConnell really is interested in getting Keisler, R. Conrad and Matthews confirmed, he needs to be willing to sacrifice the nomination of Glen Conrad. If he waits until G. Conrad is confirmed either in late June or early July to launch a large scale attack on the Dems, the nominations of Keisler, R. Conrad and Matthews will already be effectively dead. After July 1, the technical start date of the Thurmond Rule, Reid and the Dems will have a very valid-sounding reason not to process any of those three. All Reid and Leahy will have to do to block them is start a campaign of character assassination to prove how "controversial" the three actually are. Then the rest of the Dems can follow meekly behind demanding a closer committee evaluation of all of the new, "shocking" revelations.
http://afjjusticewatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/senate-judiciary-committee-s...
"The Senate Judiciary Committee will be keeping busy this week. Despite all the hype about Senate confirmation battles, the Committee will be holding hearings this week on four district court nominees: Paul G. Gardephe for the Southern District of New York, Kiyo A. Matsumoto the Eastern District of New York, Cathy Seibel for the Southern District of New York, and Glenn T. Suddaby for the Northern District of New York.
Wednesday will also mark the first of a series of hearings meant to highlight the importance of the United States Supreme Court. This week’s session is titled, “Short-change for Consumers and Short-shrift for Congress? The Supreme Court’s Treatment of Laws that Protect Americans’ Health, Safety, Jobs and Retirement.” A mouthful yes, but certainly a worth-while topic – especially considering the many pro-business decisions coming out of the Roberts Court.
Finally, on Thursday, the Committee has scheduled votes on Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals nominees Helene White and Raymond Kethledge, as well as Michigan District Court nominee Stephen Murphy. While their hearings were held over a month ago, Senate Republicans objected to holding votes on their nominations pending a new ABA rating for Judge White, who was rated "Qualified" when she was initially nominated to the court in 1997 by President Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, the entire Senate voted to confirm three district court nominees today, including Mark S. Davis for the Eastern District of Virginia, David Gregory Kays for the Western District of Missouri, and Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. for the Eastern District of Missouri.
We will be sure to keep you updated on any and all new developments."
Re: What about Thursday's SJC business meeting?
by Curt Levey
<< they need to explicitly point out that Gardephe too has not received an ABA rating >>
Bobo, I believe Gardephe was rated unanimously well qualified.
Curt
by BoBo
You are correct. He conveniently got his ABA rating today just 24 hours before his hearing. Amazing how fast the ABA can work when it wants to!
http://judiciary.senate.gov/meeting_notice.cfm?id=3409
The meeting begins at 10:00 am. If McConnell invokes the two hour rule, then the Dems could use it as an example of Republican obstruction. They might cancel the meeting and then say that the Republicans are the reason why two circuit court and one district court nomination couldn't be processed. McConnell needs to be careful about giving the Dems "spin" advantage.
Another situation that needs to be carefully dealt with is Wednesday's committee hearing for four New York district nominees. It starts at 2:00 pm. If the Republicans cause its delay or cancellation, they are giving more ammunition to the Dems, who will claim more Republican obstruction.
One of the district court nominees given a hearing on Thursday, Paul Gardephe, has not yet received his ABA rating. If the Republicans really want to sound principled in how they delayed Helene White's committee vote, they need to explicitly point out that Gardephe too has not received an ABA rating and because of that fact should not be processed at the same rate as the other three nominees. To allow him to be processed as quickly as the other three will expose Republicans to charges of situational ethics.