Posted on 12/13/2006 4:45:27 PM PST by RWR8189
"So you are correct, but the likelihood of that occuring appears to be remote."
It all depends on how determined the President is really.
On one from "their" state. They'd pay political hell trying to put a hold on a SC nominee. It would likely be the only thing that could trigger the "nuke option".
No pillow biters!
I believe, Sir, you've forgotten that the Spirit of
Daschle the Obstructionist yet lives and flourishes in the halls and chambers of the Congress.
Stalling for 18-20 months would be piece of cake for Reid, the Non-owned Land Speculator, and Leaky Leahy, not to mention the unconstitutional but real Democrat filibuster tactic.
How do you KNOW Bush will fumble again? Is this thread even TRUE?
Of course, this is somewhere between Marx and Engels.
Only gets to sit for a year or two (until the end of the next session of Congress).
Recess appointment.
"Only gets to sit for a year or two (until the end of the next session of Congress)."
I know that. I was only saying the seat didn't have to be vacant for two years if a stalemate occurred.
So?
Looks like Bush is bound and determined to come up with a pick that will make Harriet Meyers seem positively brilliant by comparison.
This is not a second tier cabinet post or an ambassadors slot in some sleezy third world country. This is the United States Supreme Court, and political hacks have no place on it. There are any number of highly qualified, highly experienced, conservative judges or legal scholars out there to where we don't have to stoop to picking bozo senators just to get the nomination thru.
If that's what it takes to get someone on the court then I say let them filibuster and be damned. Eight justices can still hear cases.
Kind of like the last two years of Clinton. I don't think he got a single judge through the Judiciary Committee between 1998 and 2000.
The Judicial Selection Monitoring Project reports that only one Clinton nominee out of 373 was rejected by the Senate in all eight years of Clinton’s presidency. Those 373 confirmed nominees are the second all-time record, topped only by President Ronald Reagan.
During the first half of 1999 the Senate Judiciary Committee didn't hold a single hearing on any of Clinton's nominees. In all the committee held 11 hearings in all of 1998. The number dropped to seven in 1999 and shot back up to eight in 2000. Most of Clinton's appointees never received a hearing. And that's the way the game is played these day. I believe that when William Rehnquist was nominated to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon it was a matter of a few weeks between announcement of the nomination and confirmation by the Senate. The Democrats started playing games with judicial appointments when Reagan came into office and but even then at the time Bush Senior was in office it took on average 77 days between nomination and Senate confirmation hearing. During Clinton's last term it took an average of 244 days between nomination and confirmation hearing, if one was even scheduled. I've absolutely no doubt that the Democrats will try the same thing these next two years.
Looked up the charts.
Both Clinton and Bush got 2 SCOTUS picks. Bush might get 3.
For the appeals level:
Clinton got 60 picks, of which 15 were in 99/00 (which proportionally is even with the rest of his presidency.
Bush has gotten 46 picks to date, and has 16 pending nominations/vacancies to fill.
So while he has gotten about the same number here, with the GOP senate that number probably should have been higher. Even if the Democrats stonewall half of them, he still would be pretty much on course.
Nominate - Cornyn as a new associate justice; upon confirmation to USSC;
Replace - Cornyn with Tom Delay as the new Senator from Texas. Congratulations Senator Delay. Time to kick some DemonRat tail.
Done Deal -
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