Powerboss
04-26-2002, 02:20 AM
Neas's New Orders
Wednesday, April 24, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
Ralph Neas's official biography describes him as the "101st Senator," from an admiring comment by Teddy Kennedy. Actually, that's selling him short. When it comes to judicial nominations, Mr. Neas might as well be the one and only Senator. The 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee salute and follow orders.
Following his borking of judicial nominee Charles Pickering Sr., Mr. Neas has issued new directives from his command center at the People for the American Way. The war plan remains the same: Keep as many Bush nominees as possible off the bench, especially the appeals courts. We'll come to the specific targets in a minute, but first a word about overall strategy.
Mr. Neas, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Majority Leader Tom Daschle would have us believe that there is nothing unusual about the Democrats' treatment of Mr. Bush's judicial picks--that the Republicans' modus operandi was the same back when Orrin Hatch ran the Judiciary Committee in the Clinton years. There's just one thing wrong with this picture: It has nothing to do with reality.
The first thing to know about the Clinton judges is that there are 377 of them. That's the second-highest number of judges confirmed in the course of a Presidency--and it was accomplished with six years of a Republican Senate. President Reagan, who benefited from six years of a Senate of his own party, managed to get just five more judges confirmed. Yet for Mr. Neas, this record somehow adds up to "an unprecedented ideological blockade."
Democrats go into high-dudgeon mode when they talk about the 56 Clinton nominees who weren't confirmed. But a closer look at the numbers tells a different story. Not many judges ever get confirmed in Presidential election years, when the White House may change hands. And indeed, three Clinton appointees were left at the end of 1996, when the Democrats were in control. Similarly, nine were nominated too late in 2000-2001 for Congress to act.
Of the remaining 44, 17 lacked the support of home-state Senators, which Senatorial etiquette requires as a prerequisite for a hearing. One--Ronnie White--was defeated on the Senate floor in the kind of fair fight denied to Judge Pickering, who was defeated in committee. That leaves the true number of stalled nominations at 26--including a few who had confidential issues that kept their nominations from going forward.
There are several other key differences between the Judiciary Committee then and now. Chairman Patrick Leahy's go-slow approach means, for example, that the appeals court nominees who have gotten hearings all appeared solo. That's a change from the Clinton years, when Mr. Hatch regularly let the committee vet two or more circuit court nominees in a single hearing. Mr. Leahy is also slowing down the process by demanding that some nominees produce written versions of their district court opinions. Since lower court judges usually deliver their opinions orally, forcing them to come up with written versions amounts to another delaying tactic.
But the biggest change in the ground rules under Neas-Leahy Judiciary has to do with "blue slips," an unfortunate Senate tradition that gives a Member effective veto power over nominees from his own state. Mr. Leahy has taken the unprecedented step of giving Senator Carl Levin what amounts to blue-slip power over the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, including nominees from Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee as well as his home state of Michigan. Back in the Clinton years, Mr. Hatch fought off pressure from some Republicans to pull a similar stunt with blue slips. No good deed goes unpunished.
One Capitol Hill wag calls this tactic the "sister-in-law-hold" after Helene White, Mr. Levin's sister-in-law, whom Mr. Clinton nominated to the Sixth Circuit without consulting then-Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. Republicans in the Senate are circulating a letter to be sent to Mr. Leahy asking him to explain his blue-slip policy. It'll be interesting to hear how Chairman Neas instructs him to respond. Meanwhile, half the seats on the Sixth Circuit remain empty.
The upshot of all this is that only eight of Mr. Bush's 30 appeals court nominees have been confirmed. One (Judge Pickering) was defeated, three have had hearings but no vote, and 18 linger in limbo, without even so much as a hearing date. That includes eight of his first 11 picks, nominated almost a year ago. Meanwhile, Mr. Neas has had plenty of time to slam nominee Brooks Smith (Third Circuit) for belonging to a men-only fishing and hunting club, Priscilla Owen (Fifth Circuit) for being one of several members of the elected Texas Supreme Court who accepted campaign money from Enron and Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) for being a "Hispanic Clarence Thomas."
The Pickering defeat was a wake-up call for Republicans, who are finally beginning to realize that, unlike Bill Clinton, President Bush is being denied the opportunity to leave a legacy in the courts. The best way to fight back is to elect a Senate this November that doesn't include Ralph Neas.
Wednesday, April 24, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
Ralph Neas's official biography describes him as the "101st Senator," from an admiring comment by Teddy Kennedy. Actually, that's selling him short. When it comes to judicial nominations, Mr. Neas might as well be the one and only Senator. The 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee salute and follow orders.
Following his borking of judicial nominee Charles Pickering Sr., Mr. Neas has issued new directives from his command center at the People for the American Way. The war plan remains the same: Keep as many Bush nominees as possible off the bench, especially the appeals courts. We'll come to the specific targets in a minute, but first a word about overall strategy.
Mr. Neas, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Majority Leader Tom Daschle would have us believe that there is nothing unusual about the Democrats' treatment of Mr. Bush's judicial picks--that the Republicans' modus operandi was the same back when Orrin Hatch ran the Judiciary Committee in the Clinton years. There's just one thing wrong with this picture: It has nothing to do with reality.
The first thing to know about the Clinton judges is that there are 377 of them. That's the second-highest number of judges confirmed in the course of a Presidency--and it was accomplished with six years of a Republican Senate. President Reagan, who benefited from six years of a Senate of his own party, managed to get just five more judges confirmed. Yet for Mr. Neas, this record somehow adds up to "an unprecedented ideological blockade."
Democrats go into high-dudgeon mode when they talk about the 56 Clinton nominees who weren't confirmed. But a closer look at the numbers tells a different story. Not many judges ever get confirmed in Presidential election years, when the White House may change hands. And indeed, three Clinton appointees were left at the end of 1996, when the Democrats were in control. Similarly, nine were nominated too late in 2000-2001 for Congress to act.
Of the remaining 44, 17 lacked the support of home-state Senators, which Senatorial etiquette requires as a prerequisite for a hearing. One--Ronnie White--was defeated on the Senate floor in the kind of fair fight denied to Judge Pickering, who was defeated in committee. That leaves the true number of stalled nominations at 26--including a few who had confidential issues that kept their nominations from going forward.
There are several other key differences between the Judiciary Committee then and now. Chairman Patrick Leahy's go-slow approach means, for example, that the appeals court nominees who have gotten hearings all appeared solo. That's a change from the Clinton years, when Mr. Hatch regularly let the committee vet two or more circuit court nominees in a single hearing. Mr. Leahy is also slowing down the process by demanding that some nominees produce written versions of their district court opinions. Since lower court judges usually deliver their opinions orally, forcing them to come up with written versions amounts to another delaying tactic.
But the biggest change in the ground rules under Neas-Leahy Judiciary has to do with "blue slips," an unfortunate Senate tradition that gives a Member effective veto power over nominees from his own state. Mr. Leahy has taken the unprecedented step of giving Senator Carl Levin what amounts to blue-slip power over the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, including nominees from Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee as well as his home state of Michigan. Back in the Clinton years, Mr. Hatch fought off pressure from some Republicans to pull a similar stunt with blue slips. No good deed goes unpunished.
One Capitol Hill wag calls this tactic the "sister-in-law-hold" after Helene White, Mr. Levin's sister-in-law, whom Mr. Clinton nominated to the Sixth Circuit without consulting then-Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. Republicans in the Senate are circulating a letter to be sent to Mr. Leahy asking him to explain his blue-slip policy. It'll be interesting to hear how Chairman Neas instructs him to respond. Meanwhile, half the seats on the Sixth Circuit remain empty.
The upshot of all this is that only eight of Mr. Bush's 30 appeals court nominees have been confirmed. One (Judge Pickering) was defeated, three have had hearings but no vote, and 18 linger in limbo, without even so much as a hearing date. That includes eight of his first 11 picks, nominated almost a year ago. Meanwhile, Mr. Neas has had plenty of time to slam nominee Brooks Smith (Third Circuit) for belonging to a men-only fishing and hunting club, Priscilla Owen (Fifth Circuit) for being one of several members of the elected Texas Supreme Court who accepted campaign money from Enron and Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) for being a "Hispanic Clarence Thomas."
The Pickering defeat was a wake-up call for Republicans, who are finally beginning to realize that, unlike Bill Clinton, President Bush is being denied the opportunity to leave a legacy in the courts. The best way to fight back is to elect a Senate this November that doesn't include Ralph Neas.