Mitch McConnell declares — as GOP minority leader in the Senate, mind you — that there will be no more judicial confirmations until after the election, five months from now.
On the (very dim) bright side, he appears to be torquing off Republicans, too.
'The practice has been used by both parties in recent decades to stall controversial nominees as the election approaches. But extending the practice so early and using it to block all nominees, even those with strong bipartisan support, is entirely new. In a clear departure from past custom, McConnell is now declaring that even overwhelming bipartisanship doesn't cut it when it advances a nominee put forth by President Obama.
Among those peeved by McConnell's declaration are Republican senators in states who have appeals court nominees waiting for a vote from the Senate. Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said she'd keep on pushing for her favored appeals court nominee, Maine's William Kayatta Jr., with or without McConnell's support: "I have strongly supported his nomination from day one," she said, "and will continue to work with the bipartisan Senate leadership in an effort to bring his nomination to the floor."
Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, who has recently criticized his party's immovability on judicial nominations, told the Oklahoman that he was resigned that a vote on an Oklahoma nominee he supports "is not going to happen." That nominee, 10th Circuit nominee Robert E. Bacharach, Coburn said, is "an awfully good candidate." Earlier, Coburn was more blunt, saying it would be "stupid" for his party to block a vote on Bacharach.'
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GOP Tired of Obstructing Judges, Pledges to Stop Working on them Altogether
Mitch McConnell's strategy has been simply to stall and sabotage as many of Obama's initiatives as possible, regardless of the consequences. Last week's judicial nominations decree signals his intenti…
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