Bench battle resumes over new nominee(re-nomination Peter Keisler)

[maddezmom]

Source: The Hill

Bench battle resumes over new nominee
By Alexander Bolton
May 15, 2007
Senate partisans are preparing to battle over a nominee to the second-most powerful court in the country, threatening to end a year and a half of peace in the Senate judicial confirmation wars.

President Bush nominated Peter Keisler to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June, making him one of the longest pending circuit court nominees. Bush resubmitted Keisler’s name to the Senate this year.

The judge’s liberal critics acknowledge that he has excellent legal credentials, but charge that he has shown no commitment to advancing civil rights or environmental and worker protections. They are also suspicious of his role as co-founder of the Federalist Society, a bastion of conservative jurisprudence.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last week hinted that Democrats would block Keisler’s nomination.

“With respect to the nomination of Peter Keisler, that re-nomination is controversial,” Leahy said. “He was previously nominated in June of 2006 but was not considered by the Republican majority then in control. The Republican majority did not seek to proceed with this controversial nomination at that time.”



Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bench-battle-resumes-over-new-nominee-2007-05-14.html

[cally]

1. If the Dems can't block this nutcase, then why do

we have a majority?