By Scott Crass
It happened just the way I figured.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the nomination of Michael Shipp, a candidate for a U.S. District Court judgeship for New Jersey. It was a totally non-controversial nomination which meant that, had a filibuster been held, would’ve been broken easily. But the GOP decided to vitiated a filibuster and allowed a simple up or down vote.
Only one Senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, had been even known to be toying with filibustering Shipp’s nomination, and that was due to an unrelated matter. Paul had been trying to cut off aid to Pakistan (“which led Reid to quip that Paul think’s he’s “a better Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton.”) Paul dropped plans to make his voice known at Shipp’s expense, though he did provide the sole “nay” vote for the confirmation.
The vitiating of the filibuster for Shipp, which in plain English alludes to the rolling over by those who might have used it, is precisely what I had spoken about in my last column. It is also the reason Reid should schedule more confirmation votes, particularly more than the one per week that has been taking place since the Senate returned from it’s Memorial Day recess. If Reid were to file cloture on each nomination and a filibuster comes to pass, fears of the Senate floor being bottled up would come to pass, as each nomination would require a simple hour of debate, and a roll call. Now if Republicans would only agree to unanimous consent, that is a different story but, let’s not ask for too many things at once.
Timewise, the impact would be very minimal. Given that they lack of tempestuity that accompanied the Shipp vote it seems unlikely that anywhere close to an hour would be taken. In fact, in Shipp’s case, only 4 Senators spoke on the floor: Judiciary Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Grassley, and Shipp’s home-state Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, who rose to cite his credentials. And you know, the Senate does not have to adjourn for the week by mid-afternoon on a Thursday.
At the very least, particularly as the month long August recess approaches at the end of next week, Reid should schedule a handful of cloture votes. The uncertainty of the political season once September come offers no assurances that smooth sailing will take place were he to hold the votes over, so Reid might as well take advantage of the moment. Not to mention the fact that lack of Judges leaves courts in a stalemate. That is not a partisan line. The ABA, accompanied by many local chapters, not to mention Judges themselves, have made the same point, pleading for action.
That said, three more nominees are expected to be reported out of Judiciary today. That will put the number of those pending on the Executive Calendar at 18. One, Thomas Durkin, is from Illinois, where Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin has been aggressive in assuring votes for his home-staters. The other two are from California, which has been left with six “judicial emergencies” (three other “Golden State nominees are among those waiting for votes).
Gonzalo Curiel is among the Californians, and he has been waiting the longest for a vote, his name having been submitted in November. Next to him is Gershwin Drain of Michigan, but his nomination was only affirmed by Judiciary 10-6 due to concerns among committee Republicans about past writings regarding the NRA. So that is one where the GOP might take Reid’s dare of a filibuster.
Nominees from Connecticut and Iowa have loomed almost as long but California, New York,Pennsylvania, and Utah have multiple Judicial emergencies. And those by itself go into the double digits.So Reid should figure out an order to accommodate.
Whatever the order, the onus is now on Reid. One per week is simply not acceptable given what’s at stake. Advocates of holding up the process have shown they’ll blink. Now is the time to move forward.