Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is not tolerating the Democrats' refusal to confirm judicial nominees who have been waiting for months -- or years.
McConnell used his mastery of Senate procedural rules to catch the Democrats' attention regarding the judicial nominees in limbo. Rather than consenting to routine Senate business -- for which unanimous consent was required -- McConnell forced the Clerk of the Senate read every word of a 491 page global warming bill. This was retribution for Senate Democrat Harry Reid breaking his pledge to confirm three judicial nominees by Memorial Day, as well as the slow pace of confirmation throughout this session.
The Washington Times quotes McConnell:
It is important that judicial emergencies are filled with qualified judges, and we will use the various tools at our disposal to ensure that those nominees and the Republican Conference are treated fairly, and that the Majority takes its commitments seriously.
McConnell is right about "judicial emergencies." The failure to fill vacancies has created backlogs of cases for which justice delayed may well be justice denied.
Litigants are not the only people hurt by the Democrats' failure to confirm nominees for courts with vacancies. Reid has forced the judicial nominees to put their lives on hold while he takes his sweet time determining when -- or whether -- they will ever get an up or down vote on the merits of their confirmation.
In light of the lives that Reid has disrupted, listening to a few hours of global warming legislation is a small but nonetheless just retribution. Indeed, McConnell was merciful in letting the Democrats immerse themselves on one of their favorite topics.
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