After all the uproar about judge confirmations in the 113th
Senate, the new Senate seems to be working just fine--if more slowly--in this
capacity. After every election, all the appointments from the executive branch
that have not been approved before the election are dissolved. POOF. Gone. And
they must be resubmitted.
In the past nearly all of them were. This time, many were
not. For example, the guy nominated to a seat in the Federal District of
Northern Georgia was dropped for good reason. The sub-committee process
unearthed some racist statements he made a couple of decades ago and so
bye-bye, dude. Game over. And the lady nominated to a seat in Eastern North
Carolina was not resubmitted after waiting through two previous congresses and
being told by the Republican Senator (Burr) from NC that it ain't gonna
happen--no Obama judge in Eastern North Carolina, m'am. The defeat of Senator
Kay Hagan was the end of that person's aspiration. Politics happen.
Now that the Republicans are in charge and pissed off by the
rapid last minute barrage of Democratic confirmations, it would be natural to
assume that Obama would no longer get any judges confirmed. However, this
doesn't appear to be the case. And I give Senators Grassley of Iowa, and
McConnell of Kentucky props for this.
In the face of such troubling possibilities, president Obama
has only resubmitted 9 of the two dozen + nominees left hanging at the end of
the last congress. To this he's also offered up 4 new nominees. Of the the 7, 4
have been reported out by the judiciary committee under Senator Grassley's
authority and will be voted on in the next couple of a weeks or so. This is a
good thing. While elections have consequences, they are not sporting rivalries
where winner lord their victories over losers and trash the town like imbeciles
celebrating.
The maps I'm including show the present parity of District
Judges between those appointed by Republican Presidents verses Democratic
Presidents as the district courts are presently divided,
AND as it would change
if all of the openings were filled with Obama nominations.
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