Republicans Delay Obama Court Nominee...Again
Barack Obama will soon nominate a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and the question of the month is whether that confirmation process will be smooth, or rough, or somewhere in between. The answer may depend in large part on who Obama picks, but as a proxy, many have pointed to Democrats ability (or lack thereof) to get Dawn Johnsen confirmed as the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.
A better proxy, though, might be Obama's first federal court nominee. Obama tapped David Hamilton to fill a vacancy on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and, despite a moderate record on the bench, he's already running into some trouble.
Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans boycotted his first nomination hearing, and Sen. James Inhofe threatened to filibuster his confirmation, and now, after Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) became the panel's ranking member, Republicans are dragging their feet once again.
Republicans temporarily blocked Senate committee action on President Barack Obama's first judicial appointment, attacking the nominee for rulings based on separation of church and state.Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned the fitness of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana to be promoted to a federal appeals court in Chicago.
Is this what the soon-to-be-named SCOTUS nominee should expect? I guess we'll see.
Late update: For what it's worth, Sessions has hired former Bush Justice Department official Elisebeth Cook to be his "Chief Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
May 22, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
My bet is that ANYONE Obama nominates will be opposed by the party of no.
May 22, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, better find another question of the month.
May 23, 2009 1:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
The answer had absofuckinglutely nothing to do with who Obama appoints. There is no one Obama would appoint who would be acceptable to them. Need proof? Look at the story about Hamilton in the link:
The guy made straightforward applications of precedent in church-state cases, and that makes him "controversial." He didn't rule that the Indiana legislature couldn't open with a prayer, he just said the prayer had to be nonsectarian and atheists or agnostics could just roll their eyes and catch up on their email while its going.
Apparently, if a judge won't approve a state sanctioned prayer along the lines of "Oh, our dear sweet lord Jesus, smiter of infidels and blesser of violence and hate against them, please help us forgive those heathean scum who think you are only the son of God and a preacher of pacifism and forgiveness rather than God Himself and a vengeful and angry god, at that. Or help us smite them. Either way, we're good. Amen," that makes him "controversial" to Sessions.
Jesus H. Christ, they so did the right thing when we blocked this asswipe's appointment to the federal bench back in the 80s. Amen.
May 23, 2009 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
These complete assholes....the party of no is so full of corrupt individuals that the games they play stand in the way of the government working. it is no wonder that only 21% of the country identifies with this regional party of red necks and classic jerks!
May 22, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How can this be filibustered when Dick Luger has come out in support? It must mean some Dems are against it as well?
May 22, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's held up in committee, it hasn't made it to the floor yet
May 22, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why the heck can't it get out of committee, then?
The Dems have a majority on any committee.
May 22, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe Senate committee rules "may" require, at minimum, one vote from each party for the matter to be voted from the committee. Is Lugar on the committee?
May 22, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. Sen. Lugar sits on the Foreign Relations Committee (where he is the ranking member) and the Agriculture Committee (where he once was the Chairman).
May 22, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The answer is that although Leahy knows full well they're going to be "troubled" by past decisions or articles by any Obama nominee espousing even the most milktoast legal mainstream views and any decision upholding precedent rather than engaging in conservative judicial activism "controversial," he's not going to go to the mattresses with them until they've built up a record of obstruction. He can't, really, because its a war that gets fought out in the MSM and the DC MSM is still wired Republican.
And this is how it will be unless and until their numbers in the Senate are reduced to somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35. These guys really do believe that their wingnut extremist views are "mainstream." They really do believe that anyone to the left of them holds "controversial" views. They sincerely believe that they are the only thing standing between America and a radical restructuring of society that makes the policies of the Labor government in 1945 Britain look moderate by comparison. Indeed, its not too far out of their party's current mainstream to conceive of people like the commenters here at TPM--with all of our increasingly vociferous disagrements--as a bunch of locksetp Stalinists goose-stepping the nation toward leftist totalitarianism. And only these noble few stand in the way of that horror.
May 23, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that the Republicans are concerned because the conservative christian group is not happy with them because they can't see anything much the Republicans delivered to them in all those years of power, the 30-year cultural war for the most part has failed. And if the Republicans lose any more of that group to Obama than they really are left holding nothing. All these far-right christian stands really is about holding on to their base. Nothing stirs the conservative christian group more than a judge ordering the removal of Christian symbols from public places, which up to about the 1970s never would have happened.
The Republicans are continuing to provoke the emotions of the christian right with these issues and the evangelicals, unable to accept their reality, are trying to turn back the clock decades. In the south where things change much slower, evangelicals still believe they have a chance to turn back progress/or what they believe is a deterioration of society. There is a strong sense of confusion and anger in these churches across the south, and the Republicans know it is partly directed at them which is why they are making these stands, especially against judges, and trying to turn the anger toward Obama/Democrats/Liberalism.
May 24, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed, its not too far out of their party's current mainstream to conceive of people like the commenters here at TPM--with all of our increasingly vociferous disagrements--as a bunch of locksetp Stalinists goose-stepping the nation toward leftist totalitarianism.
Hmm. Vociferous disagreements are a symbol of lock-step Stalinism. Yeah, that makes sense. Stalinist Russia was well known for its promotion of vociferious disagreements and vigorous debate. It was also well-know for promoting and tolerating disagreements with the President -- oops, I mean, the Party General Secretary. Just like here on TPM, disagreements with the Party Leader's policies were welcomed and discussed candidly and robustly in order to foster dialogue about the best way to move the country forward.
May 25, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
excellent question
May 23, 2009 1:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
One would hope that President Obama would see the writing on the wall and not bother conferring with Republicans on his SCOTUS nomination. Anybody he chooses will be blocked by the GOP, but they won't be able to stop it.
Nominate Pam Karlan!
May 22, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republican party is blinded by their hate for the Democrats and for President Obama. They have lost all reason and have completely allowed their rabid hate to get in the way of serving the nation. These people don't give a damn about this county or its people. The Republican party has allowed hate to govern on their side of the isle with no regard for the people who sent them to Washington.
May 22, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans, Please stop the hate.
May 22, 2009 10:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I hope somebody makes a video of all the rethugs screaming for an up-or-down vote on Bush nominees.
May 23, 2009 12:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
And they'd have a video of Dems arguing the opposite and Obama voting against Bush appointees.
May 23, 2009 12:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nukler option.
May 23, 2009 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Has there ever been a more impotent and ineffective and cowardly crew than the Democrats in the US Senate these days? They should all be taken out and horsewhipped until they grow enough balls to fight back. The Republicans are the biggest and most obvious paper tiger in world history and these pansy ass motherfuckers are shaking in their boots every time they blink. It is pathetic.
May 23, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nope, and that's THE reason, I will never identify as a Democrat again. Those folks are a bunch of spineless a*sswipes.
May 24, 2009 8:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I do not think it will be as rough as this one considering the Supreme Court confirmation process will get much more attention.
Thank you for even covering this. It is rather difficult to find good coverage of the judicial in this day and age. Of course this allows the Republicans to stall for whatever reason while few even realize it.
To the people commenting, the authors of this site will not come out and say this but most if not all of these issues are AT PLAY when these articles get posted.
Meaning that if you lobby your congresspeople and senators, you can make a difference in these proceedings. Whatever you wanna do, send $ to the Democratic party, DCCC, send e-mail to the Senators in your state to get them to move. Most have contact info on their websites.
May 24, 2009 5:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone who thinks the Republicans will go easy on an Obama Sup. Court nominee is smoking an amazing brand of weed. They've got virtually no power right now - other than to try to garner forty votes to prevent the majority from bringing major legislation to the floor -- or from getting a nominee a floor vote. So, Lindsay Graham may seem moderate. John McCain may seem moderate. Kay Bailey Hutchison may seem moderate, too.
There is no doubt, though, that the GOP uses nominations in its fund raising. Its leadership will compel these folks to oppose the nominee -- and to filibuster because Obama voted against cloture for Alito. So, the message to Barack is this: fear not what the other side thinks. They will oppose you no matter what. Appoint someone with a strong record and take your chances.
May 24, 2009 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I presume that confirmthem.com is absolutely APOPLECTIC over this obstructionism, as they were over Democrats' efforts to obstruct Bush's highly qualified judicial nominees.
May 24, 2009 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink