Dems Unable to Face Reality on Judges

The debate today in the Senate was just plain silly, with Robert KKK Byrd waving his pocket copy of the Constitution around and proclaiming the end of civilization if conservative judges are allowed a vote. Of course, he brought up the fact that a bunch of Clinton judges never made it out of committee, though none who made it out were denied a floor vote. The fact is, there are certain realities about the business of appointing judges that the Dems just don't understand and don't want to understand.

The Constitution gives the President the right to appoint judges and the Senate the right to advise and consent. The Constitution does not require the President to appoint judges acceptable to the minority. If the President and the Senate Majority are of the same party, as they are today, the President has tremendous leeway to appoint pretty much whoever he wants. It would also be reasonable for the President in that situation to expect that all of his nominees will be passed out of committee and all will be eventually confirmed. Every now and then one might have some problems which keep him from being confirmed, but the liklihood is that all judges will make it to the Federal bench.

If the President and Senate Majority are of different parties, as was the case for most of the Clinton Administration, then the President will not have the same leeway to appoint whomever he chooses and expect a high percentage of success. If Clinton appointed far left judges, as he did on many occasions, he would have been ignorant to expect that all of those judges would be passed out of committee. The GOP majority had the power and the ability to reject those judges that they felt were too extreme to be confirmed.

Clinton also appointed a number of judges as he was leaving office, so he had to be kidding himself if he thought those judges would ever get out of committee. Of course the Dems are adding those judges to the list of Clinton appointees who were not confirmed.

The nuclear option will probably be invoked next week, and not a moment too soon. I'm sure there will be some fireworks initially, but I doubt the country will care about it for very long.

What can the Dems do once they can no longer filibuster judicial nominees? How about if they try coming up with good program and plans, and then pursuade the voters to put more Dems in the Senate? Is that even possible given the state of the Democratic Party today? I'm guessing that with the low quality of their current leadership, the Dems will be a minority party for many years to come.