Her Royal Highness:"Time to contol the Congress.
Fetch me our stolen FBI files. I mean our stolen FBI 'badges of honor'""
Posted on 03/23/2004 4:46:27 AM PST by Libloather
Daschle: Move Dem nominees
By Geoff Earle
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) is threatening to stall President Bush’s judicial nominees if the president does not take action soon to appoint more than a dozen Democrats to government boards and commissions.
Daschle met privately with Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) shortly before Congress began its latest recess and warned that if ongoing negotiations don’t bring results, the movement to confirm the president’s judicial nominees — already stalled by Democratic opposition — could grind to a complete halt.
“There has to be a reciprocal treatment of nominees,” Daschle said in a brief floor statement last week. “It will be very, very difficult for us to move forward on nominations in the future if the matter isn’t resolved.”
Daschle made his comments soon after the Senate confirmed Mark McClellan, President Bush’s pick to run the Medicare agency. Democrats allowed the nomination to move only after receiving a commitment from Frist to deal with the issue of reimportation of prescription drugs. That issue now goes to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for possible action.
Frist told The Hill that Daschle “made it clear that there are other nominees for positions … that he wants to get through the administration.”
Frist said his chief of staff, Lee Rawls, will continue to meet with Daschle’s chief counsel, Mark Childress, about the issue. But Frist added, “It’ll be some time” before the matter is resolved.
Aides say three-way negotiations among Daschle, Frist and the White House are ongoing. Daschle plans to make a speech on the topic early this week.
Daschle is pushing to get more than a dozen Democrats named to boards and commissions that have bipartisan representation. According to a Democratic leadership aide, among them is Jonathan Adelstein, Daschle’s former staff aide, whose term on the Federal Communications Commission expired at the end of the last session, although he still is serving on a temporary basis.
Adelstein was confirmed after a prolonged fight as Daschle managed to overcome the opposition to Adelstein by then-Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) by holding up other administration nominees as leverage.
Many of the boards and commissions operate behind the scenes, but some have substantial rulemaking authority. Some of the posts are partly ceremonial, but Democrats are short on patronage jobs, since the GOP holds unified control of government.
The White House has moved to fill some posts, such as a spot recently on the Merit Systems Protections Board, which deals with federal personnel issues. But Democratic aides charge that the White House is moving slowly for purely partisan reasons, with the goal of using the vacancies as negotiating chits.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been holding up several of the administration’s controversial nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Democrats were outraged by Bush’s two recent recess appointments of circuit-court judges who were stalled in the Senate. The Senate confirmed two U.S. district-court judges before it began a recess in March, but tensions have been simmering in the Senate Judiciary Committee over an investigation of leaked internal Democratic committee computer documents.
The Senate confirmed two district-court judges before the recess, despite the conflict over the Judiciary Committee memos.
Even before Daschle issued his threat, swift action on judicial nominees was considered unlikely in a polarized election year.
Asked whether Democrats would hold up judicial nominations to get the Democrats nominated, the Democratic leadership aide said, “All options are on the table.”
Asked whether Democrats might also hold up legislation as well, the aide replied, “All options are on the table.”
Since when?
[as if that's not already going on]
Her Royal Highness:"Time to contol the Congress.
Fetch me our stolen FBI files. I mean our stolen FBI 'badges of honor'""
Sounds to me like there is, Tommy. So where have you been hiding, Mr. Daschle? Decided to poke your head out on the national scene again, and see if your numbers in S. Dakota go south?
i.e. If we don't get our lying, crybaby way. These people DISGUST me.
Oh Please .. give me a break
Hey Tommy we all know you are not a man of your word and will block them even if there is a compromise is made
Another lying Rat trap.
This souless little troll has to go!
Contribute to his opponent...
JOHN THUNE FOR US SENATE
P.O. BOX 3308
SIOUX FALLS, SD 57101
Democratic roadblocks in 2001 to the organization of the new Bush administration certainly didn't help America prepare for --->9/11.
That is an underreported fact. We had an FBI Director who was still arranging the pictures on his new desk a week before. From day one, the dims tried to cripple this administration, and I dare say that they bear a great deal of responsibility for the ability, or lack of, the government to respond that morning. They tried to sabotage every tool the President had to work with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.