Private: Senate Delays on Judicial Nominations Sparking Backlash

ACSblog reported yesterday on a number of senators who have expressed frustration over the lagging pace of judicial confirmations. In one statement, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy condemned the "delays and obstruction" of President Obama's nominations. Other senators, though, joined the chorus charging Republicans with abusing the filibuster to delay or scuttle the administration's judicial selections and to obstruct other important business of the Senate. 

Senator Al Franken (pictured) took to the senate floor to deliver a pointed rebuke of his "colleagues [who] seem more interested in using every procedural method possible to keep the Senate from doing anything." Franken cited multiple instances in which senate Republicans attempted to filibuster nominations that were ultimately confirmed by unanimous or near-unanimous votes. This practice, he charged, is a "perversion of the filibuster and a perversion of the role of the Senate." 

Franken continued:

In February, the Senate finally confirmed the noncontroversial administrator of the General Services Administration after 9 months. The vote was 94 to 2. Similarly this month, my colleagues forced a cloture vote, they forced a cloture vote to approve a judicial nominee for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was then confirmed unanimously, 99 to 0. Yet we are forced to vote for a filibuster. That is nuts. This is a perversion of the filibuster and a perversion of the role of the Senate. It used to be the filibuster was reserved for matters of great principle. Today it has become a way to play out the clock.

Senator Mark Warner also criticized his Republican colleagues on the senate floor, noting: "One thing has become clear to me since becoming sworn in a little over a year ago. ... Some of the very safeguards that were created to make this a serious and responsible deliberative body have been abused in a way that damages this institution." Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeanne Shaheen and Roland Burris also delivered floor speeches that stressed the need for quick action on Obama's nominations. 

Importance of the Courts