March 17, 2005

ENOLA GAY, YOU ARE CLEARED FOR TAKE-OFF:

Panel Resends Blocked Bush Judge Nominees (JESSE J. HOLLAND, 3/17/05, Associated Press)

Republicans on Thursday cleared the first of President Bush's blocked judicial nominees for Senate approval, a move that Democrats say could lead to a filibuster confrontation that could shut the chamber down.

The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 party line vote agreed to send the nomination of former Interior lawyer William Myers to the full Senate for approval.

While Republicans say Myers, who now is in practice as a private lawyer in Boise, Idaho, would make a good judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites), Democrats claimed that he is too anti-environment.

Democrats blocked Myers's nomination during the last Congress, and say they will do the same this year. "The Myers nomination is likely to be used as the trigger for the nuclear option," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 17, 2005 12:36 PM
Comments

Schumer's not worried - he has a seat for life. But many other Democrats should be. I'll bet they fold and can't get the 41 votes they need to maintain.

Posted by: jim hamlen at March 17, 2005 12:41 PM

As I said some time ago, Bush has the ultimate nuclear option: recess appoint Mark Levin to the Court. What would Chucky say about that?

Posted by: ratbert at March 17, 2005 12:46 PM

Too anti-environment? The bastard. Probably believes in a balance between private property rights and the desires of earth-firsters. Nazi!

Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at March 17, 2005 12:55 PM

". . .likely to be used as the trigger for the nuclear option"

He actually means "nucular", right? Ah, this IS delicious. When was the last Senate filibuster? The New Media will have a field day with them if they're stupid enough to go thru with it. Imagine 'live-blogging' a filibuster. This should be fantastic.

Posted by: John Resnick at March 17, 2005 1:17 PM

now we (and by we i mean the entire u.s.) will see just how deep hillary's "changes" go.

Posted by: cjm at March 17, 2005 3:02 PM

"We're gona get these judges appointed even if they hear the noise all the way back in Bear Creek!" Kong, MAJ., USAF (ret)

Posted by: Luciferous at March 17, 2005 4:42 PM

The so-called Nuclear Option should be renamed for a primary proponent of it back in the 1970s: The Byrd Option. How can he object, he likes having everything else named after him?

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 17, 2005 6:18 PM
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