ConfirmThem

Yesterday's Record show UC granted for one committee to meet, and Sentor Reid making an offhand statement that he didn't think it appropriate to vote on a judicial nomination on Friday, due to (a different) committee being denied UC to meet.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 5, 2008, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing.

No objection

Mr. REID. Mr. President, it appears at this time, for the knowledge of all Senators, we are going to try to have a vote as early in the morning as possible on cloture on the global warming bill. Unless someone has some real concerns, we will probably try to do it around 9 o'clock in the morning so people can leave at a relatively early time tomorrow. That should be the only vote we are going to have. We were going to try to do a judge, but the committee's meeting was objected to today, so I didn't believe that was appropriate.

And that's to be expected.

Pretty soon though, McConnell is going to have to lay out some specific "take it or leave it" proposals to Reid on judges or it might stlil all be for nought.

http://www.committeeforjustice.org/blog/2008/06/mcconnell-keeps-his-prom...

"Despite the cynics who doubted there would be any real repercussion made in response to Harry Reid's broken promise to confirm three federal circuit judges by Memorial Day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proved that he is a man of his word. Leading the chorus of Senate Republicans, McConnell stalled the Climate Change Bill on the Senate floor on Wednesday; objecting to Reid's motion to dispense with the reading of the 540-page Bill. McConnell continued to deliver this morning, bringing a successful vote to filibuster the Lieberman-Warner Climate Securities Act (S. 3036) by a vote of 48 to 36 (60 votes for cloture is necessary to limit debate)."

Courtesy of the Committee for Justice,

http://blog.thehill.com/2008/06/05/senate-ought-to-vote-on-court-nominee...

"I have sought recognition to comment on a couple of subjects. One is the gridlock we are facing now in this body on the issue of judicial confirmations. It is my hope that we will yet be able to find a formula to break this cycle of gridlock.

I am not going to get into all of the nuances of the so-called “deal” about the confirmation of three circuit judges before Memorial Day, but that deal could have been accomplished had the judges waiting in line the longest been processed as opposed to judges who had not had their investigations done and had not had their ABA clearances.

I hope to sit down with [the Judiciary Committee] chairman to try to work through this…It is my hope we will find a way through this thicket. I have proposed a protocol where we would have a hearing so many days after a nomination; then so many days later, we would have executive committee action; then so many days later, floor action…What we ought to do is we ought to vote; we ought to bring these people to the floor for a vote."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SandyFroman/2008/06/06/mcconnell_halt...

"On May 22, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a speech about judicial nominations in the U.S. Senate, calling out Senator Harry Reid for breaking his commitment to get judicial nominees a vote on the Senate floor. McConnell said there would be consequences, and on June 4 he proved it by slamming on the brakes in the Senate."