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Posted on 01/03/2002 12:07:41 AM PST by JohnHuang2

Senate Democrats running the obstruction campaign against President Bush's judicial nominees must be squirming in their seats as 2002 opens.

There's no doubt such an obstruction campaign exists. Though President Bush started nominating earlier and made more nominations than previous new presidents, the Senate approved just 28 of his 65 nominees – a record low confirmation rate. Democrats' pathetic confirmation performance last year was even 40 percent lower than their own average under past Republican presidents.

Now Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has taken Senate Democrats to task and exposed why their obstruction campaign is so dangerous for the country. In his 2001 annual report on the judiciary, released on Tuesday, the chief justice warned that in "times such as these, the role of the courts becomes even more important in order to enforce the rule of law. To continue functioning effectively and efficiently, however, the courts must be appropriately staffed. This means that … judicial vacancies must be timely filled with well-qualified candidates."

Democrats are squirming because Chief Justice Rehnquist has long been excruciatingly bi-partisan in his criticism of judicial vacancies and they have jumped on his similar vacancy warnings when Republicans ran the Senate. On June 24, 1998, now-Majority Leader Tom Daschle said: "The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, calls that 'vacancy crisis' a 'most serious problem.' He warns that 'vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of justice that traditionally has been associated with the federal judiciary.' We cannot wait for the judicial system to collapse before the Senate acts. I call upon Senate Republicans to reject partisan politics and significantly accelerate the pace of scheduled judicial confirmations."

Interesting. Chief Justice Rehnquist's warnings were valid and the judicial system about to collapse with just 72 vacancies back then. Vacancies are 30 percent higher today, yet Sen. Daschle is instead leading the obstruction campaign. Sounds like "partisan politics" to me.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is playing the same game. Back on March 2, 1998, he said: "Chief Justice William Rehnquist spoke forcefully on the judicial vacancy crisis that is plaguing the federal courts. He warned: 'Vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of justice that traditionally has been associated with the federal judiciary.' Justice delayed means justice denied, because without judges courts cannot try cases, sentence the guilty or resolve civil disputes. Partisan and narrow ideological efforts to impose political litmus tests on judicial nominees and to shut down the judiciary must stop."

Now that's odd. Chief Justice Rehnquist was worth quoting and justice was being denied with just 82 vacancies back then. Vacancies are 15 percent higher today, yet Senator Leahy's committee is a virtual black hole from which judicial nominees cannot emerge. Sounds like a "narrow ideological effort … to shut down the judiciary" to me.

On February 3, 1998, Senator Dianne Feinstein said: "When even a Republican Chief Justice criticizes the Republican Congress for refusing to move more quickly to confirm judges, you know something's wrong. The Chief Justice is deeply concerned about the large number of judicial vacancies on the federal courts. There are too few judges to handle the workload."

Let's check the record. Chief Justice Rehnquist was a sage and there were "too few judges to handle the workload" with just 81 vacancies back then. Vacancies are 16 percent higher today and Senator Feinstein is blocking President Bush's nominees to appeals court positions in her state. To quote her, "you know something's wrong."

In his 1998 State of the Union Address, President Bill Clinton used Chief Justice Rehnquist as authority in urging the Senate to confirm his nominees. He said: "Police, prosecutors, and prevention programs, as good as they are, they can't work if our court system doesn't work. Today there are a large number of vacancies in the federal courts. Here is what the Chief Justice of the United States wrote: 'Judicial vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of justice.' I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea, and vote on the highly qualified judicial nominees before you, up or down."

Today, with vacancies nearly 20 percent higher, President Bush should similarly cite Chief Justice Rehnquist in his upcoming State of the Union Address. Perhaps he could quote from President Clinton's speech, since the same point is even more urgent today. Or, though it's slightly less dignified, he might simply quote Senator Leahy from March 1997: "Let us stop the dillydallying."

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