IS THERE ANY DOWNSIDE TO THIS FOR THE GOP?

Democrats Threaten to Stop Senate Business if GOP Changes Rules on Judge Confirmations (David Espo, 3/15/05, The Associated Press)

Democrats served notice Tuesday that they will slow or stop most Senate business if Republicans unilaterally change the rules to assure confirmation of President Bush's controversial court appointments.

Make them do it.

MORE:
Senate near meltdown over judges: A vote on nominee William Myers may be a rehearsal for a next Supreme Court justice. (Gail Russell Chaddock, 3/16/05, CS Monitor)

Currently 43 seats lie vacant in the 871-member federal judiciary.

Myers is one of 10 Bush judicial nominees blocked in the 108th Congress by Democrats refusing to allow the nomination to come to a vote on the floor of the Senate. It's the first time a filibuster has been used to block a judicial nomination outside the Supreme Court.

"We have to reinstate majority rule in the Senate. The Myers nomination is the test," says Sen. John Cornyn (R) of Texas. "It is wrong for a partisan minority to argue that a president's judicial nominees must receive a 60 percent vote of the Senate to be confirmed - when throughout history only a 51 percent vote has been required," he said in remarks prepared for an address to conservative activists at the Heritage Foundation Tuesday. When the Senate refuses to act on nominations within a reasonable time, it violates the Senate's constitutional obligation to advise and consent, he adds.

But Republicans blocked dozens of President Clinton's judicial nominees by refusing to let them come to a vote in the Judiciary Committee.

Except that Republicans were the majority using majority rule.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2005 6:13 PM