Under fire from conservatives, McConnell hassles Democrats

Goaded by conservative activists in his home state of Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) has begun harassing his Democratic colleagues.

Prominent right-wing groups are upset with McConnell over the small number of conservative judicial nominees confirmed during the 110th Congress.

{mosads}Their pressure has spurred the minority leader to hound Democrats with a variety of legal tactics. Two weeks ago he forced an eight-hour reading of a Democratic climate change bill, effectively blocking it. He has also invoked a rule limiting committee meetings to two hours, slowing the agendas of Democratic chairmen.

Leading conservative activists remain unsatisfied, which could affect members of his political base back home, where he faces what he called the toughest reelection campaign of his career.

The American Center for Law & Justice, a prominent conservative legal advocacy group, sent an e-mail alert to members in Kentucky urging them to press McConnell after he failed to secure the confirmation of three promised appellate court nominees before the Memorial Day recess.

“Over a year ago, McConnell said in The Washington Post that if ‘Democrats want our cooperation, they’ll give the president’s judicial nominees an up-or-down vote,’ ” the group wrote in a memo obtained by The Hill. “Yet today, the nominees still languish in committee … judicial spots remain unfilled. Please ask Sen. McConnell to take the forceful parliamentary steps that are his prerogative as minority leader in the U.S. Senate to make sure these good judges are confirmed.”

The Family Research Council, one of the nation’s largest Christian-values advocacy groups, has also planned activity in Kentucky.

Tom McClusky, vice president for government affairs, said he is preparing op-eds for newspapers in Kentucky and Nevada that would be critical of McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“They’ll be calling each leader on the carpet for their failures on this issue,” said McClusky.

He said that Reid is “the bigger culprit” but that McConnell is also at fault for letting Democrats confirm so few conservative nominees.

Conservatives are angry the Senate has confirmed so few of President Bush’s circuit court nominees, especially three highly touted conservative jurists: 4th Circuit Court nominees Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews and D.C. Circuit Court pick Peter Keisler.

Don Stewart, McConnell’s communications director, said McConnell would not shut down Senate floor action and freeze legislation funding troops in Iraq and granting expanded surveillance authority to intelligence agencies.

Stewart also emphasized McConnell’s obstruction of the climate change bill and use of the so-called two-hour rule, which has drawn complaints from Democratic leaders.

“He has taken several actions to let the majority know that they have not lived up to their commitment [on judges],” said Stewart. “Some of those are seen; some are not seen; but they’re all seen by the majority.”

The calls for tougher action by Senate Republicans have spread to conservatives in Kentucky.

“With the courts being the pivotal arbitrator of the domestic conflict, it should be clear to all Republicans that a ‘surge’ in this culture war via the [judicial] confirmation process would be just as effective as the surge in the Iraq conflict, both in turning the tide of battle … as well as winning the hearts of Americans,” said Kent Ostrander, executive director of The Family Foundation, a conservative nonprofit educational organization based in Kentucky.

Stewart said McConnell’s office has yet to receive complaints from constituents.

“I haven’t gotten a single call from Kentucky. This is the first our office has heard of it,” he said.

The Senate has confirmed only eight of Bush’s 21 appellate court nominees during the 110th Congress, according to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy.

When McConnell took over as Republican leader at the beginning of 2007, he said he would demand that the Senate confirm 17 circuit court nominees, the average for the last two years of recent administrations.

It seems unlikely McConnell will reach his goal, because Congress will recess for most of August and likely adjourn at the end of September.  

Drew Ryun, the director of government affairs at the American Center for Law & Justice, said: “We routinely urge members of the Senate to make this issue a top priority, and while we appreciate all that Sen. McConnell is doing, we’re just encouraging him to use all the parliamentary procedures he has at his disposal.”

McConnell has vowed repeatedly over the past year and a half to bring the Senate to a halt to force faster action on judges. But conservative activists say that little has happened aside from the flare-up over the climate bill.

“For too long we kept on hearing from McConnell and Specter, ‘Something’s coming, something’s coming,’ ” said McClusky, in reference to Senate Judiciary Committee senior Republican Arlen Specter (Pa.). “These procedural moves don’t move the issue forward. To the Democrats, it’s like gnats.”

Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Third Branch Conference, an association of 150 conservative and libertarian leaders from around the country, called the Republican pushback on judges “pitiful.”

“That e-mail and my own sense tells me that we need to do more than encourage the Republicans to take on the pitiful procedural tactics they’ve taken so far,” he said, in reference to the e-mail alert from the American Center for Law & Justice.

Miranda, who handled judicial nominees as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said McConnell’s tactics have had little effect.

“It shows they’re trying to throw red meat at the base to meet the promise that McConnell made early in the year that he would take forceful action, but that’s not what he’s doing,” said Miranda of Senate Republicans. “They need to go down en masse to the floor because the Democrats have broken their promises and outmaneuvered them at every turn.”

Democrats promised to confirm three circuit court nominees by the Memorial Day recess but only approved one, enraging many conservatives.

McConnell retaliated by holding up the first bill the Senate considered when it returned from the break: the climate change legislation.

The Judiciary Committee has confirmed two more nominees, but one, 6th Circuit Court selection Helene White, is opposed by many Republicans.

Connie Mackey, the senior vice president of FRC Action, the legislative action arm of the Family Research Council, supported Miranda’s criticism.

“I think he’s right,” she said. “We took time for them to read a bunch of bills and nothing happened and we’re no place.”

Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for strict-constructionist judges, however, said McConnell has shown more resolve recently.

“I think McConnell realizes this is important to the Republican base and he has been increasingly focused on this issue,” said Levey. “The key is whether he keeps it up.”

Levey said other Senate Republicans should do more to support their leader.

“McConnell cannot do this alone,” he said.