Posted on 06/07/2006 7:15:46 AM PDT by yoe
The Senate is back in session, and we'll soon see if Republicans are serious about confirming President Bush's nominees for the appeals courts. Majority Leader Bill Frist kept his promise to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit before Memorial Day, after he'd waited three years for a vote.
So who's next? Mr. Frist wanted to move Fourth Circuit nominee Terrence Boyle by Memorial Day too, but no go. A federal judge in North Carolina, Mr. Boyle has the honor of waiting longer than any appeals-court nominee in history for a floor vote. He was in Mr. Bush's first group of nominees announced on May 9, 2001 and was first nominated by Mr. Bush's father in 1991, though Democrats denied him a vote.
Democrats now say they'll filibuster his nomination.
[snip] Which brings us to William "Jim" Haynes II, another stalled Fourth Circuit nominee. Mr. Haynes was named on September 29, 2003, had a hearing two months later, and was voted out of committee in March 2004. But don't blame this delay only on Democrats. Two Republicans -- Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- are also causing the holdup.
[snip] Mr. Haynes is the Pentagon's general counsel, and his transgression is to have offered legal advice on the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. The big point of contention is his role in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision in December 2002 to allow "coercive" interrogation techniques against al Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo.
[snip] The Pentagon says Mr. Haynes offered legal analysis; his critics distort this to say he was instrumental in forging a policy that could be used to justify "torture." But there is no evidence that anyone condoned torture, and it was the CIA, not the Pentagon, that used "waterboarding" that critics cite as the most coercive sanctioned technique.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Man, that's leadership !
Being held up by these two freaks of nature is nothing to be ashamed of. Neither one of them is worth a damn, and the nominee should go public when they run for re-election! As they say, paybacks are a real bit**....
ping
Boyle - Waiting 4 years 1 month
Myers - Waiting 3 years 1 month
Haynes - Waiting 2 years 8 months
"The Senate is back in session...."
I stopped reading there.
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