What Is Harry Reid Waiting For?
For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans have blocked a judicial nominee to the second most powerful court in the country, and for the third time it is not because they doubt his qualifications — how could they? He’s a sitting district court judge who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate just three years ago. Nor is it because they fear he harbors an extreme ideology.
Rather, Judge Robert Wilkins’ nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is being held up for the same reason that Patricia Millett’s and Nina Pillard’s were before him. The claim, which Republicans struggle to make with a straight face, is that the D.C. Circuit has enough judges as it is, and that it would be a waste of resources to add any more. (Needless to say this rationale was not a concern when a Republican was in the White House.) They also argue that Mr. Obama’s picks would tilt the court to the left, as though that weren’t a president’s prerogative.
The Republicans made clear their willingness to blanket filibuster D.C. Circuit nominees months ago, and now they’re just taunting the Democrats, who they believe (correctly, so far) are too cowed to change the rules and ban the filibuster for all presidential nominees.
“Go ahead,” Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said last week. “There are a lot more Scalias and Thomases that we’d love to put on the bench.” Sen. Grassley conveniently elides the fact that both Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas actually got the up-or-down vote he and his colleagues are now denying President Obama’s nominees. (Justice Thomas was confirmed, Mr. Grassley might also recall, by 52-48 in a Democratically controlled Senate.)
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/what-is-harry-reid-waiting-for/?_r=0
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