What obstructionism?
More than 130 of President Bush's judicial nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, including most of his original group of nominees. 100 of those judges were confirmed during the time the Democrats controlled the Senate. Only two have been blocked by filibuster. The judicial confirmation process is going far more smoothly today than Republicans allowed under President Clinton.
Members of both parties have a long history of filibuster. Senate leaders like Bill Frist were voting against cloture on judicial nominees as recently as 2000.
The use of the filibuster is far more accountable than the kind of secret holds that Senate Republicans used to block and delay many of President Clinton's nominees.
What crisis?
The number of vacancies on the federal judiciary is the lowest it has been in 13 years. There are approximately 40 vacancies now -almost a third of the 111 vacancies that were awaiting the Democrats when they took control of the Senate in July 2001.
As Senator Leahy has pointed out, the vacancy rate on the federal judiciary is now lower than the national unemployment rate.
What's really happening?
The real obstructionism is the White House instructing nominees like Miguel Estrada not to answer senators' questions about his approach to judging.
The real abuse of process is Senator Hatch's unilateral violation of bipartisan agreements and committee rules in order to push controversial nominees through committee and onto the Senate floor.
Republicans are threatening to change the rules of the Senate simply because Democrats are trying to do their job-carefully scrutinizing all candidates for these prestigious lifetime positions.
The real cause of the divisive confirmation battles is the Bush administration's insistence on trying to pack the appeals courts with far-right nominees (or extremist ideologues) - and the administration's refusal to engage in genuine bipartisan consultation, cooperation, and compromise, which would be the real solution to current confirmation problems.
If anything, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate are approving too many Bush judges too quickly, preventing senators from fully and effectively fulfilling their constitutional obligation to carefully review the qualifications and records of people nominated to these powerful lifetime positions.
