ConfirmThem

I won't try and persuade anyone on the conservative attributes of Fred Thompson, but he continues to stake out conservative positions. With his comments today, he's already done more to fight for Southwick than Bush and some of the other candidates.

Rudy also came out with a strong statement on Southwick calling the democrats "despicable".

The three nominees that JWB is referring to are: Enrique It's worth noting that Pres. Clinton nominated three people to the Fifth Circuit, who never made it out of committee. They were Enrique Moreno of Texas, H. Alston Johnson of Louisiana, and Jorge Rangel of Texas. The Moreno and Rangel nominations were opposed not by just one of the Texas Senators, but by both. In contrast, both Mississippi Senators support Judge Southwick's nomination. Regarding Johnson, I'm not aware that GOP Senators smeared him as being racially insensitive, as the Democratic Senators are now doing to Judge Southwick.

Al Kamen of the Washington Post recently reported that Bush "may be hard-pressed to get the 11 he needs to match Clinton's 65 appeals court appointments. (By the way, Clinton reached his total with the Senate in GOP hands for six of his eight years.)"

I'm not sure what you are talking about in the first part of your comment. Who is JWB and what remarks did he make about Moreno, Rangel and Alston?

Sorry, I've crossed out the confusing part. Andrew

Today at 10:00 am, the SJC meets for a hearing on the U.S. Attorney firings. Scott Jennings is supposed to testify. It is being televised on C-Span3 Immediately after that is over, at around 11:00 am, there will be a SJC business meeting in which Leslie Southwick's nomination will be discussed and potentially voted on. As I understand it, Reid is waiting to deal with the McConnell/Specter sense of the senate amendment until he knows whether or not the committee votes Southwick down.

Hugh Hewitt has a post today about Southwick, in which he makes the following statement:

"And according to statements by South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, himself a member of the Judiciary Committee, there are negotiations underway between some Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee and Southwick’s home Senators, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, about a replacement nominee that would be acceptable to the Democrats."

I don't know how accurate the statement is, but I hope it's not true.

If true, I doubt Bush gives Southwick a recess appointment this August. I wonder if we are back to a compromise that was talked about several months ago: Southwick gets a district court position while some Dem-approved person (hopefully not Wingate) gets his COA position.

It should be absolutely unacceptable for Senators to make judicial nominations. I understand that Lott and Cochrane may not be that opposed to the idea, but hopefully the Executive Branch puts its foot down!!