ConfirmThem

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

In addition to violating the right of a Senate majority to speak up and respond to the President’s judicial nominations, Senator Schumer of New York is now trying to silence the White House as well. On the Senate floor today, he said this:

Mr. Rove can order senators not to compromise. I hope and pray that the senators will not take direction from the White House on something where the White House's interest, whatever party the President might be, are different from the senators, and, frankly, different from the Republic's.

But the White House merely voiced an opinion:

"We believe that every judicial nominee deserves an up or down vote," Rove said. "The process is not well served by these political games." Rove said Bush tried to end the stalemate when he renominated just seven of the 10 nominees who had been blocked last year. But "I saw no change in tone" among Democrats, he said. "The flamethrowers ... came out within moments."

Evidently, Senators Schumer and Reid believe that the White House should nominate nominees and then shut up. Next thing you know, Schumer and Reid will be saying that nominees should no longer interfere with the Senate by going there to testify. The White House responded to Schumer today:

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that there are some news reports that mischaracterize exactly what he [Rove] said. He said what we have said before --- I'm talking about Karl --- he stressed that we believe all judicial nominees deserve an up or down vote on the floor of the United States Senate. The President has a constitutional responsibility to appoint --- or nominate qualified individuals to the bench. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to give those nominees an up or down vote. It is a tradition that has gone on for some 200 years, and Senate Democrats have taken the unprecedented step of blocking those nominees from receiving an up or down vote. They are playing politics with the judiciary. Some of these vacancies are judicial emergencies. These are individuals who have received high marks from people that know them well and from organizations, and they deserve an up or down vote. In terms of the Senate and their procedures, the President has made it clear that that's for the Senate to decide, and that remains our view.

What could be more appropriate than to say all that?