Let’s clarify this numbers game and put it in true context. In truth, because there are far more vacancies now, there are far more nominees than there were in the first years of either Bush senior or Bill Clinton. Thus, you cannot compare confirmations alone to determine whether a “slow roll” is going on. In his first year, Bush senior had 15 of 24 nominees confirmed, or 62%; Mr. Clinton’s numbers were 27 of 47, or 57%. The numbers for President Bush, by comparison, are 18 of 64, or 28%.
But when you look closer, it’s more sinister. Since President Bush took office, there have been 118 judicial vacancies on the federal courts. Many are listed as “emergencies.” Half the seats on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals are today empty, yet the Senate dawdles, especially on the appellate seats. To date, only five of Mr. Bush’s 28 nominees for the appellate courts have been confirmed-and two of those were Clinton holdovers, renominated by Mr. Bush as a gesture to the Democrats. And it isn’t that these were late nominations: 10 of the appellate court nominees have been twisting in the wind since May, never having been given even a hearing.
Are they substandard nominees? To the contrary, they’re some of the most outstanding lawyers and legal scholars in the nation-and therein lies the problem. Still smarting from Bush v. Gore, Democrats are fighting for the courts, which is why they’ve called, explicitly, for an ideological litmus test for judges. When you look closely at who has and hasn’t gotten through the process, it’s clear that Sen. Leahy and his colleagues are engaged in ideological cherry picking, plain and simple. Hard at work? You bet they are.
