Democrats Warned Not to Block Bush's Judicial Nominees
By Laurie Kellman
The Associated Press

Saturday 18 November 2006

Washington - The Senate's next Republican leader issued a veiled
threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow
confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations.

Democrats Warned Not to Block Bush's Judicial Nominees
By Laurie Kellman
The Associated Press

Saturday 18 November 2006

Washington - The Senate's next Republican leader issued a veiled
threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow
confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will become minority leader
Jan. 4, told the conservative Federalist Society Friday not to feel
bad about the Senate election results because Republicans will hold
49 seats in a body that requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and
bring legislation or presidential nominees to a final vote.

If the "Democrats want our cooperation, they'll give the
president's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote," McConnell said.

Vice President ***** Cheney told the same group Friday that
Republicans' loss of Congress in last week's election won't dissuade
Bush from continuing to nominate strict-constructionist judges to the
federal bench.

Democrats have used filibusters and the threat of them to block
several of Bush's more conservative federal appeals court nominees
who had the support of a majority of senators but lacked the 60
pledges needed to force a vote.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., became so irked that he
brought the Senate to the brink of shutting down by threatening to
get a parliamentary ruling forbidding filibusters on judicial
nominations.

Only a bipartisan "Gang of 14" senators - seven Republicans and
seven Democrats - averted the showdown with an agreement to allow
some of Bush's nominees to be confirmed. Democrats subsequently
rejected the idea of using filibusters to block Bush's two Supreme
Court nominees - Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

"Senator McConnell wants bipartisan cooperation but that's a
two-way street," his spokesman, Don Stewart, said Friday. "You can't
expect easy cooperation on issues of importance to them unless they
respect issues of importance to us, including the principle that
judges deserve an up-or-down vote."

Democrats chalked up McConnell's comments to posturing and plain
math.

"The president should stop picking fights and start working with
Democrats to pick nominees who can be confirmed," said Jim Manley,
spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"When we work together on consensus judicial nominees we can make
progress," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the incoming
Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Bush did the opposite this week, renominating six judges, four of
them vehemently opposed by Democrats. Leahy said the renominations
amounted to the White House "taking the bait of right-wing partisan
groups."

"Advice and consent does not mean giving the president a free
pass to pack the courts with ideologues from the right or left,"
Leahy said. "The American people want the Senate to be more than a
rubber stamp."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111806Z.shtml

Democrats Warned Not to Block Bush's Judicial Nominees
By Laurie Kellman
The Associated Press

If the "Democrats want our cooperation, they'll give the
president's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote," McConnell said.

Vice President ***** Cheney told the same group Friday that
Republicans' loss of Congress in last week's election won't dissuade
Bush from continuing to nominate strict-constructionist judges to the
federal bench.