Today’s Washington Post has this article about President Obama’s tortoise-like pace for making appointments to the federal bench. Key points include:

During his first nine months in office, Obama has won confirmation in the Democratic-controlled Senate for just three of his 23 nominations for federal judgeships, largely because Republicans have used anonymous holds and filibuster threats to slow the proceedings to a crawl.

Some Republicans contend that the White House has hurt itself by its slow pace in sending over nominations for Senate consideration. President George W. Bush sent 95 names to the Senate in the same period that Obama has forwarded 23.

The White House predicts that nominations and confirmations will pick up soon.

But liberal activists argue that Obama needs to quicken the pace, partly for political reasons. “It is incumbent on the Democrats and the White House to push as hard as they can to confirm judicial nominees, given that next year Republicans will make an all-out effort to block candidates as a means to gin up their base before the election,” said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, an advocacy organization.

I agree that the President is moving too slowly. I’m not seeing any caution. Even if there is caution, it is misplaced. If the President thinks that Senate Republicans will give his nominations a pass because he appoints people his administration perceives as moderates, then he is kidding himself. Republicans play politics for keeps and are going to oppose the President’s nominees for political reasons, regardless of who they are.

It is going to take a long time for Obama to get his appointees through the Senate. The quicker the process starts the better. Nine months have already been wasted. Obama does not have three more years to get his appointments through. He has about two, since Senate Republicans will go into the four-corners during the election year in hopes of winning the election and gaining the appointments.

I read somewhere that President Bush took little interest in his judicial appointments. That makes it even more galling that his administration was more efficient at making appointments than Obama’s. The President taught Constitutional law. You would have thought that he would make naming his appointments and getting them confirmed a priority.