Republican Delay in Confirmation Votes Stalls Nominations of Carlton Reeves and Justice James Graves
This Politico article from last week discusses the Republican political strategy of delaying votes on all President Obama's federal judiciary nominations.
The linked article includes this picture of Sessions:
Anyway, the article mentions Democrats whining about the delays and goes on to state:
Both sides acknowledge that Obama has been relatively slow to nominate judges for the more than 100 vacancies in federal courts. Democrats said it is partially a result of the amount of resources it requires to find and vet qualified nominees. The GOP, however, said the White House’s slow pace accounts for his low confirmation rate compared with Bush’s; so far, Obama has nominated 85 judges compared with 127 nominations Bush had made at a similar point in his presidency.
The Republican delay isn't surprising at all. This is why I was bitching about Obama's slow pace at making nominations months ago. Why couldn't Obama see this coming? Many of us did—despite not having Ivy League degrees.
Democrats seem to always be behind the Republicans in politics. I could see Democrats advocating a cavalry charge against German tanks in WW II.
Caught up in the delay are Carlton Reeves (nominated for U.S. Dist. Court) and Justice James Graves (nominated for 5th Circuit Court of Appeals). The fact that Reeves and Graves are not controversial and have the support of Mississippi Republicans does not matter. The Republicans have political gamesmanship to play.
Reeves and Graves will be confirmed by the full Senate once they get their votes. But I have no idea when that will be. It doesn't look like it will be anytime soon.
I've never heard that the liberum veto did much to strengthen Poland's government, and I doubt it's going to do much for America's, either.
I agree that Republicans should move both these nominees through the process and allow up or down votes on them. I expect both would receive majority confirmation. It is unfortunate that both Republicans and Democrats play politics with judicial nominations and the lives of the nominees. It is worth noting the irony here though that Carlton Reeves was only able to be nominated for his position because Democrats ran out the clock on Bush's nominee for the position.