ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Senators McCain and Biden discussed judicial nominations on separate Sunday talk shows. Senator McCain spoke about the nomination situation on Fox News Sunday, Feb. 27:

WALLACE: Senator, another issue, the Senate is about to reconsider one of the president's judicial nominees.

If it comes to a vote on the so-called nuclear option, the idea that you would change the rules and require only 51 votes to end the filibuster, if it comes to that, how will you vote?

MCCAIN: I'm very concerned about the nuclear option, because I'm afraid it's going to shut down the United States Senate, and we have a lot of things to do. I'm still hoping that we could sit down between Harry Reid and Bill Frist and work out some kind of agreement.

Really, Republicans did hold up some Democrat nominees. They held them up in committee.

But this is one that's going to be a very close call for me.

WALLACE: So you're not prepared to say at this point that you would vote "no" on the nuclear option?

MCCAIN: I'm leaning against, "no," but if the leaders of my party and the president want to talk to me about it, I will certainly listen carefully, because I do believe that elections have consequences and presidents should be able to appoint their nominees and carry them with a majority vote. But I'm worried about the consequences of it.

Senator McCain would probably be more comfortable with ending the nomination filibusters if he would take a look at Senator Landrieu's comments, described in the next post below.

Even if the Dems were to shut down the government, that is not exactly an approach that voters have favored in the past, so McCain perhaps shouldn't worry about that so much. Although Republicans did hold up some Democratic nominees in committee during the Clinton administration (as McCain pointed out), it's worth noting that the Republicans were in the majority at the time, rather than being a minority as the Dems are now (and the full Senate could have always used a "discharge petition" to get nominees out of committee). Also, that situation in the 1990s never escalated anywhere near to the point of the full Senate essentially being forced to reject a nomination without a majority vote (which in my view violates Senate Rule 31).

Senator Biden was also on the tube today. At Meet the Press, Biden said he'd vote against a promotion of Justice Scalia to Chief Justice, because Scalia "thinks there are no such thing (sic) as unenumerated rights in the Constitution." Evidently, if the President's Supreme Court nominees all agree with Scalia (and me) on this point, then Biden will vote against them all. What a distortion of the nomination process --- and the more so if Biden were to filibuster as well.

Some reporter ought to ask Biden whether he would oppose a Supreme Court nominee who agrees that there ought to be "unenumerated rights in the Constitution," but who nevertheless honestly believes that those unenumerated rights have not yet been put in the Constitution. Don't hold your breath waiting for that question, much less an answer.