GOP still ponders shutdown over judicial nominees

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday he has not ruled out the option of shutting down the chamber to put fresh pressure on Democrats to confirm President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees.

“We’re certainly not happy with the situation, and a lot of different options to respond to that are under consideration,” McConnell told The Hill when asked about whether he was open to bringing the chamber’s business to a halt.

{mosads}“We’ve made no decisions on where we go from here,” he added. “But there is a widespread sense of dissatisfaction about the way circuit court nominees have been treated.”

His statement came after Republicans brought a Judiciary Committee meeting to a near-standstill to vent their frustrations with what they said was Democratic foot-dragging to confirm 10 pending nominees to federal appeals courts. They complained that there have been no committee hearings on nominees since last September, and say that at least nine more nominees need to be confirmed by the end of Bush’s term in order to match the 15 judges the Republican-controlled Senate approved in the final two years of the Clinton administration.

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters last month that one of the options to force Democratic action is “shutting down the Senate.” He reiterated that threat this week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

In an interview with The Hill on Thursday, Specter said it was “a possibility” that the GOP would object to motions that allow routine business to proceed on the floor, a move that would stifle Senate action and effectively bring the chamber to a halt.

“That’s a decision which will have to be made by the Republican caucus,” Specter said. “I think it’s a possibility. I would not like to see it done since we have so much important business, but we also have to get federal judges confirmed.”{mospagebreak}

Democrats say the Republican criticisms are unfounded, arguing that the White House has intentionally floated far-right nominees — knowing that Democrats would object — in order to galvanize a Republican base energized about putting more conservative judges on the bench. Six of the 10 appeals court nominees do not have the support from home-state senators, decreasing the prospects they will be confirmed by the Senate.

Given those circumstances, Democrats say they have treated Bush nominees fairly, having confirmed over 86 percent of them, compared to the 75 percent of former President Bill Clinton’s nominees who were approved. Forty judicial nominees were confirmed last year, more than each of the three preceding years when Republicans controlled the chamber, they argue.

{mosads}“If you look at the figures, I think we do a pretty good job,” Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Thursday.

Leahy accused Republicans of stalling action in the Judiciary Committee, including in February when the GOP denied him a quorum during committee markups. By griping on Thursday, he said the Republicans were using up the committee time’s that would be better used considering one nominee on the agenda — Catharina Haynes — to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which covers disputes in Southern states.

“You’re filibustering your own judge,” Leahy demurred.

After an hour of sniping, the committee later approved the Haynes nomination by a voice vote.

Following the meeting, Leahy dismissed the threats, and said the Republicans would have been embarrassed had their speeches effectively delayed the approval of the Haynes nomination.

“I think they realized partway through that this probably was not their best idea,” Leahy said.