Posted on 07/25/2002 5:34:50 PM PDT by RCW2001
JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, July 25, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/25/national2015EDT0880.DTL
(07-25) 17:15 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
Sen. John McCain on Thursday stopped blocking President Bush's judicial and other nominees after administration assurances that a campaign finance ally would be seated on the Federal Election Commission by the fall.
The Senate immediately confirmed 15 nominees, including four for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The deal means that Democrat Ellen Weintraub will get a recess appointment by Bush to the FEC if the Senate has not confirmed her by the time the legislative session ends in October.
McCain, R-Ariz., agreed to end his holdup of Bush's nominees. Internal rules allow just one of the 100 senators to place a procedural hold on a nomination, making it very difficult for a nominee to get a vote.
McCain was "satisfied with the resolution," spokeswoman Nancy Ives said.
The senator has wanted Weintraub to replace lame-duck FEC Commissioner Karl Sandstrom as one of three Democratic members on the six-person commission. McCain, the longtime champion of overhauling campaign finance rules, views Sandstrom as hostile to the law that finally won passage this year.
Sandstrom, whose term expired last spring, sided with the three Republicans on a series of 4-2 votes on rules implementing the new law, which takes effect after this fall's elections.
McCain claimed they open up loopholes in a law designed to virtually eliminate unlimited donations that unions, corporations and wealthy individuals make to the political parties.
Weintraub will now replace Sandstrom on the commission after her background check is complete.
If her background check is not completed and she is not confirmed before the Senate leaves for the year, she will get a recess appointment from the White House. That would allow her to serve through the next session of Congress, in this case the end of next year.
Free of McCain's blocking, the Senate moved through several nominations to government agencies, including the SEC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Senators also prepared to bring up several judicial nominations before leaving for their August break, possibly including U.S. Appeals Court nominee D. Brooks Smith of Pennsylvania.
The Senate has been forcing judicial nominations past McCain's blockade one at a time, but now that the way is clear, they expect action on more judges.
©2002 Associated Press
The only bright side to having made this deal with that devil is that the US Supremes should be in a position to declare Campaign Finance Reform unconstitutional this fall, thereby making this whole thing moot.
McCain was blocking Bush's judges. How long should Bush have left those vacancies open? Two more years?
I agree. Better to get half a loaf. McVain is a vindictive SOB who hates Bush enough to derail the conservative agenda in his blood feud. He reminds me of Captain Ahab, in mortal combat with the great whale that will eventually doom him. But his hatred has blinded him to the truth, and he has thus forsaken his conservative values. He could have been a great ally to the cause. Instead, he has degenerated to a hateful disruptor. Its a shame.
My guess is that by the time the new Democrat is appointed, all of the significant detailed regulations for the new campaign finance laws will already be in place, so it won't matter. (It may not matter anyway, assuming the Supreme Court strikes down most of the law.) After that the FEC will deadlock 3-3 along party lines, as it normally does, so nothing important will happen.
The Democrats were "entitled" to select this appointment according to the FEC ground rules, so it's not as though Bush was giving them anything he didn't have to. He actually was supposed to have made the appointment long before this, but he purposely stalled while the important decisions were being enacted with the help of the cooperative hold-over Democrat.
Daschle picked Weintraub, it's just that McCain is happy with the choice since she'll vote to implement his campaign finance law the way he wants. For more details, see this Roll Call article.
I suspect part of this deal is that Bush's recess appointee Michael Toner also gets confirmed by the Senate at the same time as Weintraub. That would further make this a victory for Bush rather than McCain.
mclame is beyond evil - he approaches sinator hillary! on the loathsome sinator scale.
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