Senate in no hurry to confirm Bush nominees

[The Straight Story]

Senate in no hurry to confirm Bush nominees
By Brian Friel National Journal January 8, 2008

Kristine Svinicki, President Bush's nominee for a Republican slot on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a well-respected aide on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She has worked on energy, environmental, and national security issues for more than 20 years. At her confirmation hearing in July, she won praise from Democrats and Republicans, alike.

Nonetheless, Svinicki remains unconfirmed, a casualty in the subterranean battle that President Bush and Senate Democrats have been waging over executive branch and judicial nominations. A National Journal review found that in the Senate last year, the confirmation rate for Bush nominees was the lowest in his presidency. Just 56 percent of his nominees got the OK in 2007, compared with 66 to 82 percent during each of his first six years. Even in 2002, the only other full year in which Bush faced a Democratic-controlled Senate, 72 percent of his nominees were confirmed.

In fact, only three other years since 1989 have seen lower confirmation rates than 2007 -- 1992, 1996, and 2000, all presidential election years in which the White House faced an opposition Senate. The data suggest that many -- or most -- of Bush's current appointees could dangle throughout the 2008 election year, until the end of his administration.

"The Senate has no incentive whatsoever to confirm his nominees," said Paul Light, a New York University expert on the appointments process. He noted that the executive branch's political ranks will thin in this lame-duck year and remain depleted for another year as the new president gets his or her own team in place. "We're really beginning a period where, from now until the end of 2009, the federal government is a ghost town."

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=38973&dcn=todays_most_popular

[AndyA]

1. Considering most of Bush's previous nominees, that's just fine with me.

Let them sit in the "to do" box until Chimpy is in Crawford...or Paraguay, or wherever the hell he goes to avoid the indictments.

[aquart]

2. With this administration, doing nothing is the good option.