ConfirmThem

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

Previously, we decribed a proposed deal here and here that some centrist Senators were working on. The proposed deal would dump three nominees (Myers, Owen, and Saad), and would allow each of the centrist Senators to support further judicial filibusters whenever each of them thinks the circumstances are "extraordinary." Anyway, we now have THE TEXT OF THIS DRAFT DEAL, which is pretty much as described earlier. Fortunately, this deal has NOT been agreed to, as of yet.

We already pointed out here at confirmthem that many Democrats consider three sitting Supreme Court Justices to be extreme, and thus they consider the appointment of those three Justices to have been extraordinary. Presumably, Saad, Owen, and Myers would set a precedent for what "extraordinary" means for circuit court nominees, which is silly considering their excellent records. In any event, the potential Democratic signatories to this proposed compromise would undoubtedly have an even broader definition of what Supreme Court nominees qualify as “extraordinary" (seeing as how Supreme Court nominees would not be subject to supervision by any higher court).

Sen. Frist’s spokeswoman says the Majority Leader intends "to satisfy the principle of the up-or-down vote." Likewise, Senator Lott says, "I don’t see how compromise can be reached without allowing the seven judges that were blocked last year and the year before, the seven re-nominated judges from getting an up-or-down vote."

According to the Reuters report we mentioned earlier, “Nelson was confident he had enough Democrats on board for his possible compromise, but was still working to attract a total of six Republicans, an aide said."

If Myers, Owen, and Saad are such abysmal nominees, then the Democrats should have no problem attracting a few Republicans to vote against them in an up-or-down vote. It therefore seems very strange that the Democrats would want to wheel and deal in order to prevent such a vote from ever occuring for these three nominees. And, it is discouraging to think that some GOP Senators would be willing to scuttle those three nominations even though they would ordinarily support those three nominations in an up-or-down vote.

Dumping any of these nominees would be unreasonable, and would really set a horrible precedent that the minority can complain long enough and loudly enough to ultimately defeat a majority-supported judicial nominee. A deal would be great, but only if it’s fair. David Broder recently outlined a very fair deal, and so did Sen. Frist. Neither of those deals would dump any majority-supported judicial nominees.