ConfirmThem

By DanCT Posted in Circuit Courts — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Owen wins 56-43.

Interesting votes include:
Byrd (D-WV. Does this mean he'll vote on competence rather than ideology? Doubt it.)
Landrieu (D-LA. She is not as left as most Democrats, so ideological issues may not be paramount for her.)
Collins (R-ME. Big pro-choice Republican. NOT voting ideologically here.)
Snowe (R-ME. Big pro-choice Republican. NOT voting ideologically here.)

No:
Chafee (R-RI. That ranckles. Looks like an abortion litmus test.)
Nelson (D-NE. I thought he was supposed to be a pro-life moderate...)

Pryor (D- AR. He voted for cloture, so Owen is not "extraordinary", but she is not ideologically correct)
Lieberman (D-CT. Associating with Gore really did a number on his "reasonable" credentials.)
Salazar (D-CO. Purple state. Votes for cloture; votes against confirmation. Inference: Ideology does not constitute "extraordinary", but does constitute grounds for a no vote).

Dorgan (D-ND. Red state Democrat on the wrong side, but he is not up for re-election any time soon.)
Dayton (D-MN. Gopher pokes his head out of the hole long enough to vote.)
Nelson (D-FL. Another red state Dem on the wrong side. He's up for election in '06).
Lincoln (D-AR. Not up for re-election until 2010).
Baucus (D-MT. Deeply red state. Re-election vote in '08, but who could defeat him? Calling Marc Racicot!)

Abstain:
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI. Where is Senator Inouye? He skipped the cloture vote too.)

Historically, nominees have typically been confirmed if they were competent and ethically clean. PFAW and NARAL have been pushing hard for two decades to institute ideological litmus tests first under the guise of "judicial temperament" (in the '80s) and now less obscurely as "extreme right-wing activism." It looks like their campaign has been enormously successful with Democrats, but GOP still resists. The GOP hasn't been tested lately, but the far out candidate Ginsberg was confirmed 96-3, and the equally far out candidate Breyer won 87-9. What's different about this vote is the degree that ideology comes to play so strongly in a Circuit Court confirmation, as opposed to Supreme Court. Next, politics are bound to strongly enter into District Court confirmations as well.