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Discussion Membership
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When Advise and Consent becomes Smile and DissentQuestion: If it is the United States Senate's responsibility to advise and consent to presidential judicial nominations, why did the Senate majority leader Tom Daschle not let Senator Patrick Leahy's Senate Judicial Committee vote to bring Judge Charles Pickering Sr.'s nomination to the floor of the Sentate for a vote? Answer: There were enough Democratic votes on the floor of the Senate for the nomination to pass. If you have ever listened to Senator Daschle or conversed with him he comes across as a warm, quiet, reasonable man -- quite likeable in his way. If one listens only to his television soundbites, everything he says sounds credible. For instance, asked about criticism that he has bottled up judicial appointments, he notes that they have confirmed 40 of 92 Bush nominees. But television soundbites don't flesh out the whole truth. He won?t say, as the Wall Street Journal reports, that most confirmed appointments are for lower-level district courts and that just seven of the 29 appeals court nominees have been confirmed. Furthermore, most of the significant nominees are languishing in Senator Daschle's and Senator Leahy's purposefully slow hearing process. The affable Mr. Daschle plays political hardball. He has to depend upon citizens to let his tactics skate by unnoticed when reported in the brief and superficial coverage of the evening news. He has to depend upon citizens neither noticing nor caring. It is a political strategy that shows a calculated disrespect for citizens. And one that will not go unreported in good newspapers. [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "commentIt".]
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