ConfirmThem

We needed McConnell instead of Frist these past two years. This is the way to handle the donks - tie it all up unless they play some ball on the judicial nominees.

Elsewhere in the interview, McConnell says that the Reps approved over 70 Clinton appointees in his last two years, including 15 COA judges. That's a pretty good benchmark for Bush, anything less, shut down the joint.

the next 2 years could be fun after all.

agree with every word of your post too, Robert. would that we could go back and insert Mitch instead of Bill, and I guarantee we have at least 5 more judges and still have the majority. He could be the LBJ-type we need running the Senate, knocking some idiot Dem heads, he'll just have to start from the minority now.

Mitch McConnell is my Senator and I think everyone will be very pleased with his leadership. He is a tough nosed man who fought the good fight against campaign finance reform. He was able to beat it time after time until George Bush sold out the conservatives. I think he and Lott will give Dingy Harry headache after headache. I don't how he'll be able to handle a Supreme Court nominee in this enviroment, but I can tell you this. Had he been the leader for the last two years, the Republicans would probably still hold the Senate.

I knew McConnell would do better than Frist even if McConnell only had 50 or 51 senators. Now it looks like he may do better than Frist even with a minority. McConnell is one of our "evil geniuses." Don't confirm our judges and you won't be able to do anything with your stinking one seat majority!

Should there be a SCOTUS opening, if the nominee has any shot, the McConnell-Lott team will be able to get it done.

What McConnell is saying doesn't make any sense. In the next Congress, due to their majority status, the Democrats should be able to easily keep nominees bottled up in committee and/or vote them down in the full Senate. The filibuster becomes a useless tool for them. Under these circumstances, of course the use of the filibuster will become rare. There is no longer any reason for the Dems to use it. So what in the heck is McConnell saying?

It seems obvious that the Dems will only allow judicial nominees out of committee that they are absolutely sure they want passed or they know they can vote down. The only case involving judicial nominees where things might be different would be a Supreme Court nomination, which would have to be eventually passed out of committee. Then 4O of the 51 Dems/Independents could filibuster the nominee if they know 11 of their own will vote for the nominee. Still, under this scenario, a filibuster is likely to be rare. More likely, the Dems will be able to vote the offensive SCOTUS nominee down in a straight vote. Republicans may not like the outcome, but the Dems will be following Senate tradition

This seems like an incoherent idle threat to me, just some more useless chest-pounding to energize the base.

When it comes to judicial nominations, the GOP has 50 votes. 49 Republicans plus Ben Nelson plus Dick Cheney. So, the Democrats are going to have to defeat nominees in committee. Even if they do, then I think that Mitch McConnell can file motions to have the nominees removed from committee for full floor votes with Ben Nelson. I don't recall how many votes are needed to pull that off.

In that case, liberal Democrats would certainly attempt to filibuster, and Mitch McConnell is promising to bottle them up if they do so.

And of course, Supreme Court nominees cannot be defeated in committee. They must progress to the floor.

Mitch McConnell is going to be a masterful leader. I can't tell everyone enough how excited I am to finally have him there. If he had been the Leader beginning when Trent Lott was ousted, we may have a full bench right now.

Also, keep in mind that Mitch McConnell's ability to get Court of Appeals nominees confirmed might determine how bold Dubya would be with another Supreme Court nomination, should he get one. So...let's all pull for Mitch McConnell's hardball strategy to prove fruitful. :-)

I do think Chucky is feeling his oats right now, but he also may be hearing heartbeats.

We'll see. We've been fooled before.

JRB or Callahan. They'll be talking about that choice 100 years from now.

Although the use of committee discharges may be a good solution to blocked COA nominees next year, what about now? To do my part, I called the offices of Frist, Specter, Hatch and a fourth senator (on the SJC) today about Keisler's nomination. Frist's staffer said he didn't know if Frist had any position on topic (what a shocker). Hatch's staffer was equally evasive. Specter's staffer said that maybe Keisler was being held back because of an anonymous hold, whom of course he didn't know. The fourth senator's staffer was the most informative and probably gave the most realistic answer. That is the reason why I have chosen not to reveal his name. I don't want him to get in trouble. According to him, Frist and Specter have been told by the Democrats that if Keisler's name is brought up for a full Senate vote the Dems will perform a pseudo-filibuster in which they will demand so much debate that Frist won't be able to adjourn until January 2nd. In the meantime, none of the pending appropriation bills could be passed. So, basically Specter and Frist are sacrificing Keisler so the Senate can be adjourned in the first week in December. Some smart strategy, huh?

Tom Coburn stated on Hugh Hewitt's show that Diane Feinstein has put a hold on Peter Keisler. He will not get a vote in the lameduck session.

This is what I have been trying to say along.

The Democrats are not going to let any conservative nominee get through- and again this is not due to their association with any other nominee it is that they are conservative.

If Feinstein has put a hold on Keisler, as Specter's staffer implied, then he might be the perfect person to use the nuclear option on. A hold is just the threat of a filibuster. If Keisler was filibustered, Frist could use the nuclear option on him to get him confirmed. If any one would be a good candidate to use the nuclear option on, it would be Keisler. No one has better credentials with no obvious flaws. Of course, such a move would mean keeping the Senate in session for awhile in December, just like another senator's staffer told me. For Frist and Specter, I guess it is more important to get home for the holidays than challenging the Democrats on the judicial filibuster for possibly the last time.

Nice investigative work, BoBo! (Are you the REAL Insider? :) )

Well, now we know. Frist & Specter will do absolutely nothing. No one is getting anywhere. Senate traditions are more important than conservative judges.

This combined with the WH's lack of any interest or strategy, along with the mindblowing absence of judges from the campaign (as well as the mindblowing presence of Macaca, Abramahoff, & Foley) have left us where we are.

The COA is dead until '08. Stone dead.

We just have to hope that there is at least one more SCOTUS vacancy; that Bush has the guts to nominate a superstar; & that Sen. McConnell has the guts & brains to lead & that McCain knows where his only chance to become POTUS lies.

The public will do their part for the right nominee. McConnell & McCain need to calmly tell (and keep telling) Reid, Hillary & Schumer in a public venue that Haynsworth, Carswell, Bork & Thomas all got floor votes in Democrat controlled Senates, and that nothing will be done until this candidate gets one as well.

We also better get Romney or (gulp)McCain (yes, I said McCain) elected in '08, along with a whole slew of Republican senators.

Failing that, McConnell needs to point blank tell POTUS Hilly that she ain't getting any judges thru.

But I doubt any of that will happen.

Wait til you see Justice Callahan's opinion that let's the Feds bulldoze your neighborhood to "fulfill the emergency housing needs of our newest citizens".

Great Quote from McConnell. Yes I think he will be a great (alias) minority leader. What is says is 'right on'! Of course what Frist said was 'right on' also. I loved what Frist said. What he did (or actually did not do) is what made him a poor Senate leader. Hopefully McConnell will practise what he preaches. Frist did not.

Courtesy of howappealing.law.com, an article by John Dean regarding the relationship between the President and the Senate regarding the confirmation process. Link to Dean's article.

I'm sure the article will be a big hit here ;-). I enjoyed it's ultimate conclusion ...

"The Solution: Requiring a Supermajority to Confirm All Federal Judges"

Hey, at least the argument is now a direct attack, instead of the "round the barn" method of cloture abuse. And the beauty of this? The Senate would get to choose what degree of supermajority would be required! Today, 60%, tomorrow, 75%! All legal, seeing as how it would be in the Senate rules.

Peter Keisler is the last chance to use the nuclear option and forever banish the judicial filibuster, but Frist and Specter don't want to bring his name up for either a committee vote or full floor vote because it will require too much time in December. Ever heard of a cop-out? Specter should challenge Feinstein in committee concerning her hold, and Frist should challenge Reid and the other obstructionist Democrats in the full Senate. This will be the last chance for at least several years and possibly forever to get rid of this odious procedure. It's sickening that Frist and Specter would prefer to preserve unconstitutional senate traditions.

It seems a substantial majority of Senators agree with the arrogation of power to the Senate, and it has the beneficial side effect of preserving collegiality. After all, they aren't stiffing each other, they are stiffing the President. The people don't see it, and if they did, they could easily be fooled by the likes of John Dean's article or McCain's speech (defending and proud of the filibuster against judicial nominees).

The writing was on the wall in June 2005, when Frist didn't object to the rejection of taking a vote on Bolton. It was faint writing then, but the passage of time and the languishing of a significant number of nominees makes the case rather clear. The Senate has won, and the President has lost.

John Dean is a moron and a fake - always has been.

Bobo,

Thanks for the info on Keisler, it makes perfect sense. All McConnell is saying is that he will do the same thing to the donks they just did to Keisler if they continue to obstruct. They won't be able to clear bills to the floor, he can filibuster and delay if they make it that far, and generally be a pain in their collective a**. And he will do it, too.

By the way, Frist should have taken the Dems up on their offer, granted lots of debate time, and had the vote on Keisler on Jan. 2. It would have been late, but at least he could have shown some spine before hitting the bricks. I hope he doesn't waste any postage soliciting campaign contributions from me, because I get too much junk mail already.

There's really no reason for Frist to waste his time and money on a run for president, particularly after his abismal performance as Majority Leader.

If McConnell can get 41 votes to stop the minimum wage and other Dem priorities unless there's written agreement to allow a floor vote on any SCOTUS nomination, then there might be a chance. But are there 40 Republican votes for that?

The minimum wage hike is gonna happen, there's no doubt about it. When most people on both sides of the aisle are talking about it, I would say it's a done deal. I don't like it, but they didn't ask me.

there was some discussion about this (don't remember if I read it on RS or saw it on Fox News)...anyway, the thinking is that the ballot measures to raise the minimum wage in several states really hurt the Republicans / turned out votes that went to the Dems. so Bush and the Republicans will compromise on a min. wage hike (which they were already amenable to packaged with killing the death tax, which latter won't happen now unfortunately) to take that issue off the table. since its going to happen anyway now, its just smart politics.

but there are a lot of other things McConnell can really screw up the Dems on, if they keep trying to screw Bush. go mitch!

it will be proof that he's the man that Frist and McCain think they are.